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MEMORIAL SKETCH 



LAFAYETTE S. FOSTER, LL.D., 



UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM CONNECTICUT, AND ACTING 
VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 




FOR PRIVATE DISTRIBUTION. 



BOSTON : 

FRANKLIN PRESS: RAND, AVERY, & COMPANY. 

1881. 



d 



Mr 



PREFACE. 



An exhaustive memoir of the late Senator Foster would properly 
include a detail of the secret history of the war for the Union, or 
at least a review of its leading events, with an analysis of the 
political occurrences which preceded it. Mr. Foster was so inti- 
mately connected with the administration of President Lincoln, that 
the story of his life would involve a narration of the history of the 
country during those stirring and eventful years. The statesmen 
who were most competent to detail the events of that period of the 
national administration and Mr. Foster's participation in it have, 
most of them, like the subject of our sketch, gone to their rest. 
The record has in a great degree perished with them. Mr. Foster 
was on many occasions in his later life urged to commit to manu- 
script his recollections of those days. He replied that he had 
thought at times of doing so, but that he had been prevented by 
too engrossing occupation with public business during those years 
when the details were most vivid to his recollection. He never 
afterward found the opportunity to write these chapters of his 
experience ; and the country has occasion to regret it, as a valuable 
leaf in her history is thus forever lost. 

The record of Mr. Foster's beautiful private and social life is also 
necessarily imperfect. Personal recollections of his geniality and 
wit are as evanescent as the occasions which called them forth. 
His personal and social qualities will remain with all who knew him 
intimately among their sweetest memories, but the complete record 
can only be found written in the hearts of those who loved him. 
It is not available for the printed page. 



It is the object of this sketch, then, to preserve the outlines only, 
and salient features of Mr. Foster's public and private life. To it 
are appended such extracts from the records of the day, and com- 
ments from the public press, as serve to give completeness to certain 
details, and to illustrate more fully some features of Mr. Foster's 
life and character. It is hoped that the collection of these memo- 
rials may afford some gratification to those who loved our departed 
friend, and may serve in some degree to perpetuate the memory of 
an honorable and useful life. 

W. H. W. C. 
July, i88i. 



MEMORIAL OF 

LAFAYETTE S. FOSTER. 



Lafayette Sabin Foster was born in the town of 
Franklin, New London County, Conn., a part of the ori- 
ginal town of Norwich, on the 2 2d of November, 1806. 
His parents were poor, but of high character, and greatly 
respected. His father, Capt. Daniel Foster, served with 
distinction in the war of the Revolution, taking part in 
the battles of White Plains, Stillwater, and Saratoga. In the 
last-named engagement he was a lieutenant in one of the 
Connecticut regiments (Col. Latimer's), and received his 
warrant of promotion to the post of adjutant while upon 
the field. Daniel Foster's father, Nathan Foster of Staf- 
ford, Conn., is believed to be identical with the Nathan 
Foster of Ipswich, Mass., who was a great grandson of 
Reginald Foster, who came to this country from England 
in \he year 1638, tradition says, from Exeter. Daniel 
Foster's mother was Hannah Standish, a great grand- 
daughter of Capt. Miles Standish, the famous colonial 

soldier. 

Mr. Foster's mother was Welthea Ladd of Franklm, the 
second wife of Daniel Foster, to whom she was married in 
1802. She was connected by lineage with some of the 
principal colonist families of eastern Connecticut. She 
was a woman of great energy and shrewdness, of more 



than common intellectual ability, and highly gifted in con- 
versational power. Mr. Foster cherished a peculiarly 
tender affection for his mother, and his care for her and 
for his only sister throughout their lives was unceasing. 
During his early career he pressed upon his mother all she 
would receive of his limited earnings ; and it was a matter 
of pride with him, that, before he took possession of the 
beautiful home where he spent his later years, he had just 
provided for his mother a home equally well suited to her 
wishes. Mrs. Foster died Feb. ii, 1851, at the age of 
eighty-eight years, having been spared long enough to see 
in the brilliant career of her beloved son a realization of 
her fondest hopes. It is said by those who knew both Mr. 
Foster and his mother intimately that he strongly resembled 
her in some of his intellectual traits. 

Of his father, who died Jan. 28, 1824, aged seventy-nine 
years, Mr. Foster's earliest recollections were of sitting 
upon his knee, and listening to stories of the march, the 
battle, and the camp. In an address delivered at the 
Burgoyne centennial celebration at Schuylerville, N.Y., on 
the 17th of October, 1877, Mr. Foster referred to those 
Revolutionary tales as having made an impression upon 
his mind too deep and vivid to be ever erased. He quoted 
from memory a stanza of a song which his father was in 
the habit of singing, especially on the 4th of July, a day 
which he never failed to celebrate. It ran as follows : — 

" The 1 7th of October, 

The morning being clear, 
Brave Gates unto his men did say, 

' My boys, be of good cheer ! 
For Burgoyne, he is advancing, 

And we will never fly ; 
But, to maintain our chartered rights, 

We'll fight until we die ! ' " 



It may be that these stirring recitals of his father first 
awakened in his impressionable mind that intense pride in 
his native land which was so manifest on many occasions 
in Mr. Foster's after-life. 

Mr. Foster's only inheritance from his parents and ances- 
try was an honored name and an unstained character. In 
preparing himself for active life his own resources were 
early called into requisition. His education was begun in 
the common schools of his native town. At the age of 
sixteen he entered upon his preparation for college under 
the tuition of the Rev. Abel Flint, D.D., of Hartford, with 
whom he studied for nine months. During the two subse- 
quent winters he taught in the schools of his native town, 
being then a mere boy in years. In 1824 he completed his 
preparatory studies with the Rev. Cornelius B. Everest of 
Windham, and in February, 1825, entered Brown Univer- 
sity at Providence, R.I., where he was graduated in Septem- 
ber, 1828, with the highest honors of his class. While in 
college he was noted for his excellent scholarship, his tire- 
less diligence, his remarkable memory, his ready wit, and 
his genial social qualities. The resolute industry of Mr. 
Foster in working his way through college without pecuniary 
assistance from his father or other friends, was one of the 
best manifestations of a conspicuous trait in his character, 
and an omen of his success in after-life. 

After his graduation, Mr. Foster taught during the winter 
as an assistant in the school of Mr. Roswell C. Smith in 
Providence. In the following spring he began the study 
of the law at Norwich, Conn., in the office of Calvin God- 
dard, a member of the famous " Hartford Convention " 
and one of the leading lawyers of the State. In the autumn 
of 1829 he took charge of an academy at Centreville, Md.; 



8 

and during the year spent at that place he was admitted to 
the Maryland bar. Then, returning to his native State, he 
completed his law studies in the office of Judge Goddard, 
and at the November term of the court in 1831 was admitted 
to the bar of New London County. In 1833, at the solici- 
tation of many friends, he opened a law office in Hampton, 
Windham County, but a year afterwards returned to Nor- 
wich, which became his home for life. 

His early career as a lawyer was very successful, and he 
rose with rapidity to the position of a leader at the Norwich 
bar. He soon found himself chiefly engaged in the higher 
class of cases, in the entire eastern part of the State. His 
habit was to prosecute his cases with the utmost zeal and 
energy. As a pleader he was closely analytic in his argu- 
ments, earnest, serious, and persuasive. He obtained highly 
remunerative fees in many instances, but he was always 
ready to protect and assist a poor client without reward. 

It was always characteristic of Mr. Foster, that, while he 
devoted himself with zeal and activity to furthering the 
interests of his clients, he was never anxious about, or 
greatly occupied with, his own financial affairs. This was 
especially true during the later years of his life, when he 
left the care of his important business interests very largely 
in the hands of his trusted friend and adviser, Mr. Frank 
Johnson of Norwich. 

On the 2d of October, 1837, Mr. Foster was married to 
Joanna Boylston Lanman, daughter of the Hon. James 
Lanman of Norwich, who was a judge of the Supreme 
Court of Connecticut and a senator of the United States. 
Two daughters and a son were the fruit of this union, all 
of whom died at a very early age. Mrs. Foster died in 
April, 1859, after a brief illness, deeply lamented by the 



entire community of Norwich and by a large circle of friends 
elsewhere. These successive bereavements produced a 
profound effect upon the sensitive nature of Mr. Foster ; 
and it required the utmost resources of a naturally strong 
character, with the consolations of an earnest Christian faith, 
to save him from utter prostration. 

On the 4th of October, i860, Mr. Foster was again mar- 
ried, to Martha Prince Lyman, daughter of the Hon. Jona- 
than Huntington Lyman of Northampton, Mass., who, al- 
though he died young, was one of the most eminent 
members of the bar of that State. Mrs. Foster survives 
her husband. 



At an early period of his professional life Mr. Foster 
took an active interest in politics, and his abilities and the 
earnestness of his opinions quickly brought him into 
prominence. In 1835 we find him editing "The Norwich 
Republican," a Whig journal ; but he soon relinquished 
the position, owing to the rapid increase of his legal busi- 
ness. In the spring of 1839 he was chosen one of the 
representatives of the town of Norwich in the General 
Assembly of the State. This honor was repeated in the 
years 1840, 1846,, 1847, 1848, 1854, and 1870. At once, 
upon his entry into the Legislature, he took an active part 
in the business of the committees and of the House. In 
his second term he appears among the foremost debaters 
of that body. Some of his speeches at this time display 
conspicuously the acuteness in argument, and the ironical 



lO 

humor, which marked his more important efforts in after- 
hfe. 

In the year 1847 ^^ "^^^ chosen speaker of the House 
of Representatives, and was re-elected in 1848. In 1848 
he began to attract attention as a fitting man for the 
United States Senate. In the Whig Legislative caucus of 
that year he received several votes for the nomination to 
that high position, and in the subsequent balloting in the 
House he also commanded some support. In 1854 he 
was chosen Speaker for the third time. His address on 
taking the chair was brief, and so clearly illustrative of the 
man and his principles that it is here given in full. Mr. 
Foster said, — 

" I thank you, gentlemen, for this expression of your respect 
and confidence. It shall be my endeavor to discharge the duties 
to which you have called me, with fidelity and impartiality. 

"The love of order and decorum which has so uniformly charac- 
terized the General Assembly of our State, and which, I have no 
doubt, will be a prominent characteristic of this House, will render 
the duties of your presiding officer comparatively pleasant and of 
easy accomplishment. 

" Our session commences at a period of unusual interest. The 
mightiest nations of the eastern continent are just entering upon 
a war, — a war to be waged with more of pomp and circumstance, 
and on a scale of more imposing grandeur, than any the world has 
yet seen. Our own country is agitated by a domestic question 
scarcely less exciting than war itself. 

" These topics, it is true, do not fall directly within the pale of 
our legislation. It is fit, however, that our national government 
should take its tone and impress from the people and from the 
State governments. It is fit that the voice of Connecticut should 
be heard, and not altogether unheeded, in our national councils, 
declaring, as she does, with one accord, that our foreign policy is 
peace, — peace, as far more glorious than war ; that our domestic 



II 



policy, on such a question as now agitates our country, is liberty, — 
liberty and right, not slavery and might. 

" We enter, I trust, on the duties before us, with entire respect 
and good-will towards each other individually, and as members of 
different parties. These feelings ought to increase. If the divine 
precept of doing as we would be done by could at once be adopted 
in politics, it might then prove as infallible a guide as it has been 
in morals. 

" May a kind Providence be over us to counsel and direct us ! " 

On the 8th of June of that year, having been elected a 
senator of the United States, he resigned his office and 
his seat in the House. His fame as a presiding officer 
and parliamentarian has never been excelled, if equalled, 
by that of any of the other distinguished men of the State 
who have occupied that position. He uniformly exercised 
its duties in such a manner as to win the respect of mem- 
bers of all parties. A New Haven newspaper of that date, 
speaking of his resignation, remarked, " No gentleman 
in past years has retired from the same post of honor with 
more of the hearty esteem and good wishes of the Legisla- 
ture than Mr. Foster." In a letter to a friend he writes : 
*' I confess I like the duties and responsibilities of the 
position ; even when the excitement is greatest and the 
rush most intense, it suits my taste and temper." 

Previous to this, in the year 1846, Mr. Foster made his 
first journey to Europe. He sailed on the 7th of October 
for Liverpool in the packet ship *' Henry Clay," Capt. 
Nye, and arrived home in the middle of December. His 
time was spent mostly in London and Paris. In the 
former city, aside from an eager search among the chief 
historical objects of interest, he was a diligent visitor in 
the law courts. The observations of men and places 



12 

recorded in his brief diary are singularly acute. Though 
his journal was not minute, he brought from his travels a 
vast store of interesting recollections. His appreciation 
of rare and beautiful objects in nature and art was exceed- 
ingly keen ; and his comments were made with freshness 
and simplicity, as well as with discriminating taste. 

Later on, in 1850 and 1851, during the interval of his 
legislative membership, Mr. Foster was the candidate of 
the Whig party for governor of Connecticut. In both of 
these years there was no choice by the popular vote, and 
the General Assembly elected a Democratic governor. In 
185 1, although there was a small Whig majority in the 
House, there was a division in the ranks. Mr. Foster's 
opponent, Hon. Thomas H. Seymour, was elected by the 
close vote of a hundred and twenty-two to a hundred 
and twenty-one. Later in the same session an attempt 
was made to choose a United States senator. A number 
of ballots were taken. The Whigs vainly attempted to 
unite upon Hon. Roger S. Baldwin of New Haven, and 
afterwards upon Mr. Foster, both of whom came within 
half a dozen votes of an election. The Legislature finally 
adjourned without action ; and the next House, being 
Democratic, sent the Hon. Isaac Toucey to the Senate. 

In 1 85 1 the degree of LL.D. was conferred upon Mr. 
Foster by Brown University. In the same year he was 
elected mayor of Norwich, to which office he was again 
chosen the following year, without one vote in opposition ; 
a rare mark of confidence in a public man on the part of 
those who know him most intimately. 

Mr. Foster was now in the prime of his manhood. At 
the bar of Connecticut he had attained a place among the 
foremost lawyers of the State. In the appendix will be 



13 

found pen pictures of him as he appeared to his contem- 
poraries during these years. He had also reached an 
eminent position as a leader of public opinion. He had 
been long- opposed by conviction to the institution of 
slavery, and he shared the indignation which was so widely 
felt in the North at the political encroachments of the 
slaveholding interests. On a later public occasion he 
claimed an anti-slavery record as far back as 1836. Yet 
he was an ardent Whig, and regarded with disfavor the 
first efforts to institute a Free-Soil party. When, however, 
it became evident that nothing was to be hoped from either 
of the existing parties, Mr. Foster did not hesitate to sever 
his party ties, and became a member of the " Republican" 
organization from its beginning. In May, 1854, two days 
after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill by the 
national House of Representatives, he addressed a public 
meeting held in New Haven to denounce the measure. 
On this occasion he declared that the time for speech- 
making had passed, and the time for action had come. 
He pledged his efforts to whatever course of action was 
decided, after calm deliberation, to be the best. " Let us 
consult," he said, " and, whatever conclusion we arrive at, 
let us join heart and hand in carrying it into action." 



On the 19th of May, 1854, Mr. Foster was elected to the 
United States Senate by the votes of the Whigs and Free- 
Soilers for the full term of six years. Hon. Francis Gillette 
of Hartford, Free-Soiler, was chosen at the same session 



14 

of the Legislature to fill the remainder of the term for which 
Hon. Truman Smith, who had resigned, was elected. On 
the loth of May, i860, Mr. Foster was returned to the 
Senate for a second term of six years. A contemporary 
Republican journal, referring to his senatorial services dur- 
ing the first term, remarked as follows : — 

" Senator Foster, during his present term in the Senate, has 
represented the State with great dignity and ability. His courtesy 
and calmness in the discussion of all topics have made him respected 
by his political opponents in that body, and have won for him the 
esteem of the Republican Congressmen. ... It is a remarkable 
fact, that, during the entire canvass, excited and bitter as it was, 
our opponents, though regarding the senatorship as of more impor- 
tance than any other matter, were not able to make any attack 
whatever upon Mr. Foster, or to name an act or vote of his to which 
reasonable objection could be taken. But the Republicans were 
able to point with pride to his whole course in the Senate, and to 
appeal to the people with great effect to save the State from the 
disgrace of his defeat." 

During the earlier portion of his senatorial service Mr. 
Foster was not a frequent participator in debate. At this 
period the most exciting questions before the Senate and the 
country were those relating to slavery, and growing directly 
out of the repeal of the " Missouri Compromise," so called, 
prohibiting the establishment of slavery in the Territories 
north of 36° 30' of latitude. The repeal of this provision 
by the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, and the subsequent 
disorderly and outrageous proceedings in Kansas, for the 
purpose of forcing a slave constitution upon her, had pro- 
foundly agitated the people of the entire country. Mr. 
Foster's first notable speech in the Senate was delivered 
on the 25th of June, 1856, during the debate on a bill to 



15 

enable the people of Kansas to form a State constitution. 
This address was marked with calmness and dignity, and 
yet in its utterances was distinct, manly, and bold. The 
speaker's hostility to the system of slavery was frankly 
avowed, while the constitutional rights of the slaveholding 
States were as frankly conceded. An eloquent vindication 
was made of the awakening public opinion in the North on 
the subject of slavery in the Territories, in reply to the sneers 
at " shrieks for freedom." The participants in the famous 
public meeting in New Haven to extend aid to the depart- 
ing emigrants for Kansas were eulogized and defended. 
The key-note of the speech was sounded in the declaration 
that the only remedy for the existing excitement was the 
repeal of that part of the Act organizing the Territory of 
Kansas which blotted out the Missouri Compromise. The 
arguments urged by Senator Douglas, the author of the 
Kansas-Nebraska Bill, in favor of that action, were subjected 
to sharp analysis, and their inconsistencies exposed in a 
masterly manner. 

This speech established Mr. Foster's position as an able 
debater in the Senate. It was also received with great favor 
among observing men in the North, not as an appeal to 
sectional passion, but as a piece of calm and judicial reason- 
ing, which went direct to the root of the questions at issue. 
Many letters were received at this time by Mr. Foster from 
eminent public men, commendatory of the soundness of his 
positions, and urging him to continue as he had begun. 

Two years later, on the 8th and the 19th of March, 1858, 
the Senate being in committee of the whole upon the bill 
for the admission of Kansas as a State under the Lecomp- 
ton Constitution, Mr. Foster again took an emphatic posi- 
tion in respect to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. 



i6 

He said, " I believe its repeal was a violation of plighted 
faith. I believe it was an outrage upon the moral sense of 
the nation, and it ought not to have been done. I therefore 
will recognize the old compromise, and will never recognize 
the repeal." Further on in the debate, in answer to a ques- 
tion from one of the Southern senators, Mr. Foster declared 
that he would never vote for the admission into the Union 
of a slave State formed from territory north of the line of 
the Missouri Compromise. The declaration of one section 
of the Lecompton Constitution was, that " the right of prop- 
erty is before and higher than any constitutional sanction, 
and the right of the owner of a slave to such slave and its 
increase is the same and as inviolable as the right of the 
owner to any property whatever." This Mr. Foster de- 
nounced as " false in morals, false in politics, and false in 
law ; " and as " a reproach and a shame to the age in which 
we live." The provision, in the proposed constitution, that 
no alteration should be made in it to affect the rights of 
property in the ownership of slaves also received his sharp- 
est criticism and condemnation. On the 8th, in concluding 
his remarks, — which were made unexpectedly and without 
preparation, — Mr. Foster said, "I wished to be heard now, 
even in this very imperfect manner, lest by possibility the 
vote might be taken here, and my voice never be uplifted 
against this most atrocious, high-handed act of usurpation." 
In this debate the rights and duties of Congress in regulat- 
ing the formation of Territories and the admission of States 
were thoroughly and logically discussed by Mr. Foster, who 
bore himself with great calmness and courtesy in the midst 
of frequent interruptions from Southern senators, on whom 
the force of his arguments made a palpable impression. 
Mr. Foster maintained a firm and consistent position 



17 

during all these stormy years which preceded the election 
of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency. On the 4th of 
January, i860, we find him addressing the Senate upon 
the resolution to print the annual message of President 
Buchanan. An acrimonious debate had taken place over 
the references in the message to the absorbing topic of 
slavery. Mr. Foster's remarks were directed to a recom- 
mendation of the President that he be authorized by Con- 
gress "to employ a sufficient military force to enter Mex- 
ico, for the purpose of obtaining indemnity for the past 
and security for the future." The condition of the govern- 
ment of Mexico was at that date extremely chaotic ; and, 
amid the contentions of the rival claimants of the presi- 
dency, the property and lives of citizens of the United 
States had been jeopardized. Mr. Foster opposed the 
recommendation, in a concise and powerful speech, as 
being unconstitutional, against international law, and as 
tending to a conquest of Mexico, which was for many rea- 
sons undesirable. But the larger portion of his argument 
was addressed to the inconsistency of an interference with 
a foreign country for the reasons alleged, while the same 
abuses and wrongs were perpetrated within our own ter- 
ritory without any effort on the part of our government 
at redress. He pointedly asked, " Is the life, liberty, or 
property of an American citizen, within the slaveholding 
States of this confederacy to-day, who entertains opinions 
obnoxious to those communities on the subject of slavery, 
any more safe than the liberty or property of our citizens 
within the Republic of Mexico ? " In illustration of the 
indignities inflicted in the Southern States upon Northern 
people suspected of anti-slavery tendencies, he related the 
experiences of several persons from Connecticut and else- 



i8 

where. Among these was that of Mr. James Greenwood, 
one of Mr. Foster's townsmen, who was driven from Ala- 
bama, because his children, while in Norwich, Conn., at- 
tended a public school at which a few colored children 
were present. He referred also to the advertisements in 
the Southern journals, setting a price upon the heads of 
Northern abolitionists, to the outrages committed by the 
polygamists of Utah, and to the bad faith of the govern- 
ment toward certain of the Indian tribes. " I think," he 
concludes, " it would be much more becoming if the 
United States in the first place should set the example of 
good government at home." 

In this address, Mr. Foster made a pointed reference to 
the Southern threats of secession in the event of the elec- 
tion of a Republican President. He avowed his belief 
that the threats would not be carried out, but urged them 
as an argument against intrusting President Buchanan 
with the extraordinary power he desired. 

The election of Mr. Lincoln brought matters to a crisis ; 
and Congress assembled in December, i860, under most 
serious and agitating circumstances. Five of the Southern 
States had already begun preparations to secede from the 
Union, and the entire country was distracted with anxiety 
and apprehension. On the loth of December Mr. Powell 
of Kentucky called up, for action in the Senate, a resolution 
previously introduced by him for the appointment of a 
committee of thirteen, to whom should be referred that por- 
tion of the President's message referring to " the distracted 
condition of the country, and the grievances between the 
slaveholding and the non-slaveholding States." By the 
terms of the resolution, this committee was to be instructed 
to inquire whether any legislation " for the protection and 



19 

security of property in the States and Territories" was 
needed, and to report upon the expediency of proposing 
amendments to the Constitution with that end in view. 
Amendments were at once proposed, to include the rights 
and security of persons within the committee's sphere of 
investigation, and to authorize them to inquire whether any 
further legislation were requisite for the maintenance of the 
Federal authority. As the debate proceeded, Mr. Powell 
found it expedient to withdraw all that portion of the reso- 
lution which referred to the rights of " property," and limit 
it to a simple instruction to the committee " to inquire into 
the present state of the country, and report by bill or other- 
wise." Upon this proposition an important debate took 
place, which was watched the country over with intense 
interest. Jefferson Davis and other secession leaders frankly 
avowed the opinion that the proposal of a committee was 
mere political quackery, that legislation and constitutional 
amendments were valueless, and the only remedy was to be 
sought in the hearts of the Northern people. Legal guar- 
antees were useless without an entire change of Northern 
sentiment toward slavery. Indeed, the purpose of the 
Southern senators was evidently only to secure a more 
complete acknowledgment of the right of property in slaves 
as the price of peace. Early in the debate Mr. Foster arose, 
and briefly expressed his approval of the resolution. He 
would have voted for it, he said, as originally offered, al- 
though he could not commit himself to any suggestions for 
the amendment of the Constitution, and although he pre- 
ferred the resolution with the first proposed amendments. 
As the measure from a member of the party which for years 
had controlled the administration, and in whose hands the 
country was said to be falling to pieces, he regarded it as 



20 

his duty to support it, as one tending to allay the public 
excitement, and to bring back harmony and fraternal feeling 
to the country. 

At this time Mr. Foster had come to believe that secession 
and civil war were inevitable. He was among the first who 
avowed this conviction. On the ist of January following 
the debate just referred to, Mr. Foster being absent on a 
secret mission for the incoming administration, Mrs. Foster 
represented him at a dinner party given by Mr. Seward. 
During the conversation she ventured the opinion that the 
country was drifting into civil war. Senator Preston King 
of New York laughingly bade her dismiss her fears ; when 
she replied that her husband thought as she did. There- 
upon Mr. King turned seriously to her, and inquired if Mr. 
Foster really entertained such an idea, and, on being assured 
of the fact, laughed heartily at the absurdity of it. Mr. 
Seward even more strongly ridiculed such a foreboding. 
This blindness to the earnest purpose of the Southern 
leaders was shared by some other sagacious public men. 
Mr. Foster, however, was oppressed with apprehension, and 
was prepared to make almost any sacrifice not inconsistent 
with principle to avert the threatened calamity. His atti- 
tude in reference to the proposed committee of thirteen 
gave rise to considerable criticism among his constituents, 
and some went so far as to accuse him of " backing down " 
from his principles. His real sentiments were, however, 
clearly defined in the following extract from a letter written 
to a complaining friend, and printed in the public journals: — 

"As to yielding the principles for which I, in common with my 
political associates, have been contending so long, I certainly have 
not 'backed down,' — do not propose to. Disruption of the Union 
is, I believe, inevitable. So believing, it does not seem to me de- 



21 

sirable to use irritating words, to criminate or recriminate. If dis- 
union be a blessing, we shall be likely to enjoy it. I believe it will 
lead to war and bloodshed, and I deprecate it. Still, I am opposed 
to having slavery established or recognized by the Constitution of 
the country beyond the limits or terms originally assigned to it, be 
the consequences what they may. To found a government on a 
principle so clearly violative of human right, so offensive to God, 
must sooner or later call down Ifis curse. It is surely better that 
we refuse to incorporate this demand into our organic law, even in 
view of the most terrible alternative which can be presented. None 
can be so terrible as the wrath of God, which would surely visit us 
if we consented to this enormity." 

To these convictions Mr. Foster was always loyal. He 
accepted, however much he regretted it, the fact that 
slavery was recognized in the Constitution; and he scrupu- 
lously respected all the constitutional guarantees, behind 
which the institution intrenched itself. Yet he profoundly 
detested the system, and was inflexibly opposed to its fur- 
ther recognition and to its extension over the free territory 
of the United States. It may be as well here as elsewhere 
to follow his after course of action on this absorbing pub- 
lic question. 

After the outbreak of the rebellion, the slavery problem 
continued to be no less an embarrassment than before. 
What disposal to make of the fugitive negroes from the 
insurrectionary States ; how to deprive the slave confed- 
eracy of the material aid of the system, and yet act con- 
sistently with the rights of slaveholding States which 
adhered to the Union, were questions Involving great per- 
plexity. In the session of 1863 the House of Represent- 
atives passed a bill appropriating the sum of ten million 
dollars to aid the State of Missouri, under certain condi- 



22 

tions, in emancipating her slaves. This bill came before 
the Senate on the 29th of January, with sundry amend- 
ments proposed by the Judiciary Committee, the chief 
features of which were the increase of the proposed sum 
to twenty million dollars, and the consent to a system of 
gradual emancipation, extending over a period limited to 
thirteen years. In the discussion which followed, no objec- 
tion was raised to the principle of compensated emancipa- 
tion. It had already been applied, in 1862, to the District 
of Columbia. The points of difference were respecting 
the amounts proposed, and the contemplated extension of 
time. Some of the more radical Republican senators 
were prepared to vote any amount of money that might be 
requisite, but were decidedly opposed to gradual emanci- 
pation. Mr. Foster, speaking for the Judiciary Committee 
of the Senate, and undoubtedly representing the sentiment 
of Mr. Lincoln's administration, advocated the proposed 
amendments. The chief consideration urged was, that to 
make Missouri a free State would be a fatal blow to the 
rebellion. " I believe," he said, " if slavery be abolished 
in the State of Missouri, the Southern rebellion will be 
more thoroughly crushed than we can do it by armies and 
navies." And again, "The State of Missouri I regard 
as the ground where the question of this rebellion may 
almost with certainty be decided for our country. If we 
can make this great State free, millions of money are not 
too much." Regarding the concession of gradual emanci- 
pation, he said, " I agree that immediate emancipation 
would be more coincident with my own feelings ordinarily 
than gradual emancipation. . . . Still, if we clearly see that 
we cannot abolish slavery in the State at once, shall we 
not do it gradually? . . . Shall we peril the great cause 



23 

upon this question of emancipation one year from the ist 
of Januar}^ ? I should be glad if it could be done ; should 
heartily rejoice at it : but, if it cannot be done in one year, 
I would rejoice to have it done in thirteen years rather 
than that it should not be done at all." 

The extension of the time of emancipation to thirteen 
years was permissive, not obligatory ; and Mr. Foster and 
those who thought with him were of opinion that the re- 
form, once begun, would be completed in a far shorter 
period. It should be said that this bill contemplated pay- 
ment for all slaves, of rebel or loyal owners, except such 
as were excluded by the provisions of the Confiscation Act 
of 1862. Mr. Foster had, at the time of that enactment, 
favored the manumission by proclamation of all slaves be- 
longing to those who continued in active rebellion for six 
months after the passage of the bill. However, the 
scheme for compensated emancipation went to pieces be- 
fore the great exigencies of the war. 

On the 20th of April, 1864, Mr. Foster addressed the 
Senate on the bill then pending for the repeal of the Fugi- 
tive-slave Act of 1850. He was heartily in favor of this 
bill, believing, as he did, that the Act of 1850 was uncon- 
stitutional in its provisions. But an amendment had been 
offered to save from the operation of the bill the Act of 
1793. This amendment was favored by Mr. Foster, in 
company with Senators Trumbull, Sherman, Collamore, and 
Harris of his Republican colleagues ; and he proceeded with 
what was intended to be a brief explanation of his vote in 
its favor. Being interrupted, however, by Mr. Sumner, he 
was drawn into a somewhat extended debate, in which his 
objections to the repeal of the Act of 1793 were fully set 
forth. They may be briefly summarized as follows : the 



24 

Act was, in his belief, constitutional, and it had been so 
declared by the Supreme Court of the United States. Its 
terms, indeed, were mainly those of the Constitution itself. 
The Constitution provided for the reclamation of fugitives 
from labor ; and under this provision the owner of the 
escaped slave was clothed with authority in every State of 
the Union to seize and recapture his slave. No process of 
law was necessary. By retaining the law, publicity, delay, 
and legal restrictions were guaranteed to all such trans- 
actions. So far as the States in rebellion were concerned, 
they were out of the question, inasmuch as their slaves were 
declared free by the proclamation of President Lincoln on 
the first day of January, 1863. But there were certain 
slaveholding States which had kept their faith with the 
Union, and their constitutional rights should be respected. 
The law should be permitted to remain upon the statute 
book until the constitutional amendment abolishing slave- 
ry, which had recently been adopted by the Senate with 
great unanimity, should be ratified, and put an end to slavery 
forever. 

The speech was a purely legal argument, favoring the 
observance of constitutional forms and obligations, made at 
a time when the fervor of the public hatred to rebellion and 
slavery was so intense, that to invoke the Constitution in 
behalf of the actual rights of partisans of either subjected 
public men to reproach. During the argument Mr. Foster 
did not fail to express his life-long hostility to the system of 
slavery, and his desire for its speedy extinction. Yet his 
position was widely misunderstood. When, in the course 
of the debate, Mr. Sumner ventured a reference to Mr. 
Foster's remarks as " vindicating slavery," he received a 
reply which silenced him upon this point. But popular 



25 

misunderstanding was not so easily enlightened. A storm 
of reproaches, in the newspaper press and in personal cor- 
respondence, beat upon the senator's head. He bore it 
with the greatest serenity, being assured of the soundness 
of his position and of the rectitude of his motives. He was 
conscious that his opinions were those of President Lincoln, 
in whom the people rested the utmost confidence, and those 
of some of the acutest and most conscientious of his col- 
leagues. He received also many letters expressive of the 
confidence of the writers, and their admiration of his moral 
courage under the trying circumstances. Among these was 
one from the late President Wayland of Brown University, 
containing this concise expression : " With you, I do not 
see why Maryland and Delaware, and any loyal slaveholding 
States, have not the same civil rights as ever. I hope the 
time has passed for their exercise ; but, still, right is right." 
Undoubtedly this speech created some prejudices which 
worked to Mr. Foster's disadvantage in Connecticut, when, 
in 1866, he was a candidate for re-election to the Senate. 
Yet the great mass of his constituents retained an unshaken 
confidence in his political integrity, and in his fidelity to his 
early political faith. It is pleasant, in this connection, to 
quote from a letter written him in 1866 by one of his con- 
stituents, an old-time abolitionist, who, after the utterance 
of the speech just mentioned, addressed him in most severe 
and solemn terms of condemnation. He says, — 

" In justice to myself as well as to you, I must in all sincerity 
here say that I have rarely so thoroughly changed my opinion 
respecting any individual as I have in reference to yourself. . . . 
I therefore hereby pledge myself to do every thing in my power to 
continue you in the position you now occupy. If I faithfully keep 
this promise, I know not what I can do more to prove that I both 
honor and respect you." 



26 

In December, 1866, Mr. Foster spoke and voted against 
the bill granting universal suffrage, without distinction of 
color, in the District of Columbia, not from any change of 
opinion on the subject of slavery, or from any opposition 
to the grant of equal rights to colored persons, but because 
he favored the qualification of intelligence as it existed in 
the State of Connecticut, and which was not required by 
the bill. At that period of excitement, however, as the 
nation was emerging from its desperate struggle for exist- 
ence, a dispassionate consideration of such a question was 
impossible. The bill passed both branches of Congress, 
and was a second time passed, over the veto of the Presi- 
dent ; and in the House of Representatives the intelligence 
qualification was not even granted the consideration of 
debate. 

In the course of his remarks on this bill, Mr. Foster 
said, "We are not making a law for one year or for two 
years, but we are making a law which we ought to consider 
perpetual, — a rule for voters, not merely in this district, 
but one which ought to be safe and salutary if adopted 
throughout the United States." Ten years later, in his last 
messasfe to Congress, President Grant directed the attention 
of the country to this question. " The compulsory support 
of the free schools," he declared, " and the disfranchise- 
ment of all who cannot read and write the English language 
after a fixed probation, would meet my hearty approval. I 
would not make this apply, however, to those already voters, 
but I would to all becoming so after the expiration of the 
probation fixed upon." At this time public attention was 
considerably aroused to the importance of the subject and 
to the evils of ignorant suffrage. The foresight of Senator 
Foster and the few who stood with him was justified by the 



i 

1 



27 

experience of the decade. Nothing practical resulted, how- 
ever ; and it is not impossible that the golden opportunity 
for beginning this weighty reform was lost forever by the 
action of Congress in 1866. A friend writes us, — 

" The attitude which Senator Foster assumed upon this subject 
deserves especial emphasis as being one of the best illustrations of 
a salient feature of his character. Thousands of sagacious and 
thoughtful students of our political system, especially those not in 
official positions, have bemoaned the evils of unrestricted suffrage ; 
and no intelligent inquirer into the subject to-day can fail to see 
that the country would be better off for some such discrimination 
as was contemplated by this bill. But the tide of popular opinion 
was at the time sweeping toward extreme favor to the liberated 
slave ; and in standing openly and almost alone by his convictions 
of what was for the permanent welfare of the nation, in the face of 
his colleagues' and of his party's criticism, and at the peril of his 
own official position, Mr. Foster manifested a heroism too unfre- 
quently displayed by those to whose hands the shaping of the 
public policy of the nation is intrusted." 



During the years of the Rebellion, Mr. Foster's services, 
both in the Senate and out of it, were zealous and patriotic. 
It has been mentioned that he was among the first to fore- 
tell the war. Before its actual outbreak he was prepared 
to make any concessions, not inconsistent with principle or 
honor, to avert it. After hostilities began, however, he 
was untiring in his exertions to promote the triumph of 
the Union cause. On the nth of March, 1861, he rose in 



28 

his seat to move the expulsion of Senator Wigfall of Texas, 
the latter having declared in debate that he was a foreigner, 
and owed no allegiance to the government. He supported 
the resolution by a forcible and pungent speech. The 
Senate, however, did not choose to take so decided a step, 
and merely removed the obnoxious senator's name from 
the rolls. 

One of the prominent journals of the day made the fol- 
lowing comment upon this occurrence : — 

"Of late the inebriated vagabond (Wigfall) has assumed the 
strutting insolence of the Southern Confederacy, has boldly 
declared himself out of the Union, and a resident of another 
nationality, — in short, has as boldly and offensively announced his 
treason, in season and out of season, as ever did Catiline in the 
Roman Senate; and we rejoice that, at the least, his impudence 
and arrogance have been snubbed, if his treason be not visited 
with the punishment it deserves. We rejoice more than all that it 
was left for gallant little Connecticut — ever the Thermopylae of 
Freedom's battles — to do it, and to do it effectually. Mr. Foster 
is not a man of hot blood, who acts from sudden impulse. This 
movement has been one of deliberate judgment, and one in which 
his sense of duty to his country has triumphed over the timidity 
which would have deterred most men from administering such a 
bold, yet richly merited rebuke. For, be it understood, it requires 
physical as well as moral courage to bring such scoundrels to their 
reckonings." 

Some time later, when a resolution for the expulsion of 
Senator Bright of Indiana was before the Senate, Mr. 
Foster incurred some criticism by opposing it as contrary 
to the former precedent. By this time, however, senators 
were ready to acknowledge that the former action was a 
mistake ; and Mr. Foster then withdrew his opposition. 



29 

In all measures which came before the Senate having 
relation to the well-being and efficiency of the army and 
navy, or calculated to increase the vigor of the struggle 
against the rebel confederacy, Mr. Foster took an active 
interest. The bill proposed by him for the care of aban- 
doned cotton lands was highly commended for its practical 
efficiency. The various confiscation projects received his 
most careful scrutiny, and his were among the most 
weighty of the legal arguments made during their con- 
sideration. We find him in June, 1862, an ardent advocate 
of a bill for increasing the medical department of the 
volunteer service. His remarks in its support revealed an 
extensive and sympathetic knowledge of the needs and 
sufferings which existed among the volunteers, owing to 
the lack of efficiency in the medical organization. In the 
same session, in considering the appropriation bills, he 
opposes cutting down the pay of officers of the army or 
navy. In the next session he opposes the proposal to 
abolish the military academy at West Point, arguing that 
the academy was no more responsible for the treason of 
some of its graduates than Yale or Williams Colleges were 
for the delinquency of theirs. 

In January, 1864, the enrolment bill being under discus- 
sion, Mr. Foster exhibited his coolness in opposing an 
imprudent measure. The North was so exasperated by 
the cruel treatment of Union prisoners in Virginia, and 
other parts of the South, that it was seriously proposed in 
the Senate to authorize the President to call out a hun- 
dred thousand volunteers, independently of the draft, to 
serve for a hundred days, and aid in driving the rebels 
from Virginia and releasing the prisoners. Mr. Foster in 
his remarks rendered ample justice to the patriotism of 



30 

the Northern masses, who would, he said, arouse like the 
old crusaders at the call of Peter the Hermit. This 
scheme would, however, divert attention from more per- 
manent and efficient military organization, and he could 
not feel justified in supporting it. On the loth of Feb- 
ruary, 1864, he argued strongly against an amendment to 
the army bill, increasing the pay of the colored troops, 
because it was not retroactive in its provisions. Many of 
the colored soldiers had enlisted, he said, under the 
promise of their recruiting officers that they should be 
treated in all respects like the white troops. He was 
entirely opposed to any discrimination in the pay of the 
volunteers on account of color. On the 25th of January, 
1865, he made a powerful argument against the proposal 
to retaliate in kind upon rebel prisoners. He recited 
cases of suffering and death which had come under his 
own knowledge, — some of them being those of his own 
townsmen. He advocated such retaliation, shooting and 
hanging, as was justified by the usages of civilized 
nations, but protested against an emulation of the bar- 
barities charged upon the rebel officials. 

His services outside of the Senate chamber were 
equally laborious and patriotic. His time and strength 
were given to every call to patriotic duty. His private 
correspondence abounds with expressions of his intense 
and anxious interest. He shared the solicitudes and 
burdens of President Lincoln, and strengthened him by 
his counsel and support. He possessed in a high degree 
Mr. Lincoln's confidence. He was, during one political 
campaign in Connecticut, subjected to reproaches there 
for not leaving his post at Washington to take the stump 
for the Republican candidate. The reproach was entirely 



. 31 

unmerited. He remained at the capital at the earnest 
request of Mr. Lincoln, who considered his services there 
more valuable to the country than in any other place. 
Yet we find him at various times addressing large assem- 
blages in Connecticut, rebuking the grumblers, cheering 
the despondent, and inciting the people to greater sacri- 
fices for the Union. 

If he made no parade of patriotism, he nevertheless 
neglected none of its duties that came within his province. 
At the time of the first battle of Bull Run, he had driven 
out to the camp in company with other gentlemen. The 
conflict having begun, Mr. Foster found a surgeon of one 
of the Connecticut regiments, who had been placed in 
charge of a field-hospital, overburdened with wounded 
men, and without adequate assistance. He promptly vol- 
unteered his services, and labored assiduously in the hos- 
pital for some hours. At the expiration of that time a 
charge of the rebel cavalry made the position so perilous, 
that, at the earnest solicitation of the surgeon, who pointed 
out his danger as a civilian without military safeguard, he 
reluctantly relinquished his self-imposed service. He beat 
a hasty retreat on foot for several miles, and fortunately 
succeeded in evading the enemy and reaching the Federal 
lines. His arrival in Washington caused great rejoicing, 
as a rumor had prevailed that he was among the killed. 
His miscellaneous personal service at this period was in- 
cessant. Correspondents from all parts of the country, 
very many of them persons utterly unknown to him, be- 
sought his influence and aid. Some most pathetic epi- 
sodes of the war, scarcely known beyond the little circle 
affected by them, came under his notice through these 
letters, and elicited his active participation. During the 



32 

later years of the war, when Washing-ton was crowded with 
wounded soldiers, his services were always at call. Often 
he might have been seen late at night, in company with 
some anxious visitor, looking up officials in search of 
tidings, procuring passes to the front, and, in whatever 
way the circumstances demanded, giving time and strength 
freely till compelled by sheer exhaustion to retire to rest. 

No better illustration of the profound solicitude which 
filled Mr. Foster's heart during the anxious years of the 
civil war can be given, than his private correspondence 
with his wife and other confidential friends. The following 
brief extracts are taken from some of these letters : In 
July, 1 86 1, after describing the passage of a body of 
troops through Washington, he writes, " The waving 
banners, the glittering weapons, the thrilling music, the 
occasional salute and ' good-by ' of a friend, and, above all, 
the thought of the sacred cause in which these men were 
engaged, affected me deeply. My heart seemed to be 
getting up in my throat, and I was several times on the 
point of bursting into tears and weeping like a boy." In 
May, 1862, he writes, "As I think on the sad condition 
of affairs, I feel a sense of oppression almost insupportable. 
I know not what is to become of this glorious, so lately 
glorious, country. May God help us, for vain would seem 
to be the help of man ! . . . Just think of the thousands 
smitten on the battle-field, whose cries of agony have been 
going up for days past, all unheard but by the ear of the 
Eternal ! " 

In July of the same year he writes, " God save the 
United States of America, dear, poor, distracted, bleeding 
country ! These are dark days, and the future shows little 
brightness. I know not what is to become of us but ; we 



must not despair of the Republic." And, a few days later, 
" Oh ! the poor wounded in hospitals, crowded, sweltering, 
dying ; and the hundreds, perhaps thousands, lying on the 
ground in open fields, under this broiling sun, who groan, 
agonize, bleed, and die. God have mercy upon them ! I 
am reading Jeremiah in my morning devotions, and have 
been much struck with some passages I meet : ' Weep ye 
not for the dead, neither bemoan him ; but weep sore for 
him that goeth away, for he shall return no more, nor see 
his native country.' " 

In April, 1864, he writes, "All, all depends on Gen. 
Grant's success. He must succeed, and that soon, or the 
Republic is lost. Dark is the picture, but we may as well 
look at it. It is before us, wink as much as we will. I 
have great hopes, indeed, great confidence ; but time will 
soon determine." A few days later he says, " My con- 
templations are of a subdued and rather saddened cast ; 
but God is merciful, and he will do for us better than our 
deserts, perhaps better than our plans. Within a few 
months, perhaps a few weeks, something decisive, I think, 
must happen. As to our poor and wretched country, — 

' Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears, 
Our faith, triumphant o'er our fears, 
Are all with thee, — are all with thee.' 

My faith is not always quite triumphant : it does some- 
times waver. The ignorance, depravity, and meanness 
which so often rule the hour are too much for it." 

These quotations, exhibiting his mingled anxiety and 
confidence, and his earnest and constant trust in the divine 
Disposer of events, might be greatly multiplied ; but these 
will suffice. Whatever his anxieties, Mr. Foster sought 



34 

always in public life to manifest a calm and tenacious faith 
and confidence in the ultimate success of the cause which 
was so dear to his heart. 

One of the journals of his native city, opposed to him in 
politics, paid the following tribute to his personal devotion : 
" In the public meetings which were held in this town to 
provide for raising soldiers for the war, he participated as 
zealously as any one of our citizens, and contributed as 
liberally from his purse as any one among us, in proportion 
to his ability. And, during the extra session of Congress, 
when they were encamped near Washington, his time and 
services were always freely at their disposal when they 
needed any assistance at the departments or elsewhere 
that he could render them. And we happen to know that 
his purse was on many occasions open for the aid of the 
soldiers from this State. When they went to the field, he 
accompanied them, to aid in hospital duty if his aid were 
needed, to be near them as a friend, and to do any kindly 
service for them within his power." It may be truly said 
that the half of his faithful service in these regards was 
never publicly known. 

On the 29th of January, 1865, at an anniversary meeting 
of the Christian Commission, held in the House of Repre- 
sentatives at Washington, Mr. Foster delivered a brief 
address, in which he pointed out some respects in which 
the war of the Rebellion had been a benefit to the country. 
" How otherwise," he asked, " could the blessings of free- 
dom have been given to the slave ? How otherwise could 
the freedom of the press, and the freedom of speech, in the 
very halls of Congress, have been secured ? How other- 
wise could the canker of avarice have been eradicated from 
the heart of the nation, and its great benevolence and 
liberality have been developed ? " 



35 

While earnest and faithful throughout to the cause of 
the Union, Mr. Foster never cherished bitterness nor ma- 
lignity toward those whose treason had precipitated the 
struggle. He was anxious for a restoration of amity and 
good feeling between the people of the two sections. To 
this end he was scrupulously in favor of the observance of 
constitutional forms, and was in sympathy with the recon- 
struction plans of President Lincoln. This attitude some- 
times exposed him to the complaints of the extreme men 
of his party. Yet, while in his action often independent 
of the opinion of some of his political friends, he was 
always consistent, and always inflexible in his patriotism 
and in his devotion to the cause of freedom and human 
rights. He did not follow President Johnson in his policy 
of reconstruction ; and one of his last acts in the Senate 
was to give his assent, though not entirely unqualified, to 
the policy of Congress. He did not consider that Presi- 
dent Johnson was always as censurable in his political 
opinions and measures as the general public pronounced 
him ; and in this judgment impartial history, removed from 
the prejudice and excitements of the time, is likely to 
acquiesce. 



It Is not essential to the purpose of this sketch to trace 
Mr. Foster's senatorial career minutely in all its details. 
He was among the senators always one of the busiest, and 
most punctual to his duties, whether in the committee 
rooms, or in the public sessions. In the discussion of 



36 

questions bearing on legal or constitutional points, he was 
an interested and influential participant. In measures 
affectinor the financial or industrial interests of the coun- 
try, he was always attentive, and often prominent. His 
speeches on proposals for taxation were concise and lucid. 
He was severe in his scrutiny of appropriation bills. " I 
object "was a not uncommon designation applied to him 
by the under officials of the Senate, owing to his persistent 
opposition to the hasty disposal of bills involving question- 
able appropriations. Without familiarity with the tremen- 
dous pressure of work, and the excessive mental and phy- 
sical fatigue incident to the closing weeks of a parliamentary 
session, one cannot fully understand and appreciate the 
conscientious devotion to the public good involved in this 
conduct. Most of the members are desperate with the 
accumulation of work, and eager for rest ; and, under such 
circumstances, they are disposed to hurry through impor- 
tant measures, appropriating large sums of money, without 
heeding sufficiently their defects. One gets a broader, 
fuller idea of patriotism from such exceptionally patient 
and conscientious labor, and such courao-eous disregard of 
others' personal convenience or good will, for the unrecog- 
nized benefit of the country at large. He was an earnest 
advocate of a protective tariff; and some of his speeches 
on revenue bills — notably on the 20th of February, 1861, 
and the 23d of February, 1865 — were powerful arguments 
in favor of the practical importance of this system to the 
country. In the latter speech he avowed his belief, that, 
had it not been for the operation of the protective system, 
the government would have found itself unable to suppress 
the rebellion. The bankrupt law, which at the time was a 
measure of great relief to the distracted business interests 



Z1 

of the country, undoubtedly owed its passage by the Senate 
to Mr. Foster's careful attention to its details, and to his 
persistent support against great opposition. So thoroughly 
was he identified with the bill in the Senate, that, although 
he did not prepare the original draught, it was quite gen- 
erally referred to in the public press as Mr. Foster's bank- 
rupt bill. It served a useful purpose for several years; and, 
since its repeal, the demand for some provision to replace 
it has become pressing. He was also the author of the 
revised pension law, made necessary by the exigencies of 
the civil war, and was actively concerned in many other 
important measures. 

As an illustration of the moral and religious attitude 
maintained by him in the Senate, his remarks on the death 
of Senator Broderick of California, in 1859, may properly 
be referred to. That senator was killed in a duel. When 
the customary resolutions of honor were before the Senate, 
Mr. Foster arose and opposed them. He referred to the 
fact that the Federal laws, and the laws of the senator's 
own State, made duelling a felony. He did not mean to 
attack the character of the lamented senator, or insult his 
memory in any manner whatever, aside from the mode in 
which he met his death ; but as he conscientiously believed 
in and upheld the laws, human and divine, which pro- 
nounced duelling criminal, he could not vote for resolu- 
tions of honor to the memory of one who had met his 
death in that manner. " We own," commented a public 
journal of that day, " that we were surprised that this 
worthy gentleman was the only man found, in that seem- 
ingly dispassionate body, brave enough to utter a sentiment 
so obviously right and Christian." 

Mr. Foster in his public speeches made no display of 



38 

religious sentiment, although the force of human obliga- 
tion to the Divine Being was always presented among 
his weighty considerations when measures having a moral 
bearing were under discussion. In his private letters re- 
lating to public affairs, however, are to be found abun- 
dant and earnest expressions of the sincerest Christian 
patriotism. 

In March, 1865, his influence as presiding officer of the 
Senate was quietly but effectually exercised in the omission 
from the committees of two senators whose condition on 
the floor of the chamber had been at times a reproach to 
the Senate. If little public mention was made of this con- 
spicuous disapproval of official misconduct, it was none the 
less observed and commended by leaders of moral senti- 
ment throughout the country. 

During the last term of Mr. Foster's senatorial service, 
he held the position of chairman of the Committee on 
Pensions. He also occupied the second place on the Com- 
mittees on Foreign Relations and the Judiciary, thus bear- 
ing close relation to some of the most important questions 
before the Senate. In previous terms he had served on 
the Committees on Revolutionary Claims, Private Land 
Claims, Public Lands and Territories. 

The greater number of Mr. Foster's intimate senatorial 
colleagues during this important period have, like himself, 
passed from earthly service. A few words of reminiscence 
from some of those who survive him may appropriately 
be inserted here. Hon. Lyman Trumbull of Illinois, who 
served with him in the Senate for twelve years, writes as 
follows : — 

" For six years we were both members of the Judiciary Com- 
mittee, from which emanated much of the most important legisla- 



39 

tion of Congress during the war. No member of that committee 
was more useful than Mr. Foster. Always attentive, of quick 
perception and clear intellect, he did much to mould the legislation 
of that period. He was a man of conservative views, but had no 
patience with the men who, in 1 860-61, were trying to break up 
the Union. In his public acts he was governed by his convictions 
and a high sense of duty. He was no timid patriot, but had the 
independence and the nerve to go forward when duty called upon 
him to act. I remember well the sensation produced in the Senate 
when Mr. Foster, early in 1861, on his own responsibility and 
without consultation, offered a resolution for the expulsion of Wig- 
fall of Texas, who had declared in his seat that he was a foreigner, 
and owed no allegiance to the United States. Mr. Foster followed 
up his resolution with a vigorous and patriotic speech. The Senate, 
however, at that time, was not prepared for such vigorous and patri- 
otic action. ... I am sure Connecticut never had a more truth- 
ful, upright, and able senator. Of his genial nature, sparkling 
wit, and bright and sunny private life, it was permitted me to know 
something. By me he was a friend both loved and honored more 
than almost any other whose acquaintance I made in public life. 
I feel that the world is better for his having lived in it, and that I 
am made poorer by his departure." 

Hon. H. B. Anthony of Rhode Island, who also was 
with Mr. Foster during his entire term, furnishes some 
recollections, from which is extracted the following: — 

" I sat next Mr. Foster in the Senate, and became well ac- 
quainted with his ways and manners, always genial, always kind. 
He was a man of quick perceptions, a prompt and ready debater, a 
close reasoner, an elegant speaker. He was one of the very best 
parliamentarians that I ever knew, and an admirable presiding offi- 
cer, thoroughly versed in parliamentary law and in the rules of the 
Senate, and ready in the application of them. With all the gravity 
and dignity of his character, he had a quaint humor that enlivened 
his discourse, and relieved the tone of serious and stately discus- 



40 

sion. When, in the course of a long and wearisome debate, some 
senator would rise and say, ' I can add nothing to what has already- 
been said on this subject,' Mr. Foster would turn to me, and say, 
sotto voce, ' Well, then, brother, why do you say any thing ? ' Once, 
when a question was put, Mr. Foster decided ' The ayes have it.' 
The result was doubted, and some one called for a division. The 
ayes rose ; and, as they sat down, several of them called out, ' Give 
it up,' meaning that the decision should stand as first announced. 
' But the Chair would Hke to know which side gives it up,' he said. 
Mr. Foster commanded the respect of the Senate in an eminent 
degree, both for his ability and his character, and was held in high 
esteem by Mr. Lincoln, who often consulted him, and who had 
high confidence in the soundness of his judgment and the purity of 
his motives. As a statesman, as a lawyer, and as an orator, Mr. 
Foster stood in the front rank of his contemporaries. In his 
death Connecticut loses one of her most eminent citizens, and the 
country one who has rendered to it high and distinguished ser- 
vice." 



On the 6th of March, 1865, Mr. Foster, who had been 
often called to the chair, and was the favorite presiding 
officer, was chosen president /r^ fejn. of the Senate. Upon 
the assassination of President Lincoln, some six weeks 
afterwards, he became acting Vice-President of the United 
States. This position he held for nearly two years, until 
the close of his senatorial term. Here he displayed the 
same conspicuous faithfulness and ability which marked 
his earlier services as Speaker of the Connecticut House of 
Representatives, except that years of experience in honora- 
ble public service had given him a mellower dignity and a 



41 

more winning grace. A visitor to the Senate at this period 
thus describes his appearance, in a pubhshed letter : — 

" Prominent [in the semicircle of seats around the platform of 
the Senate] appears the serious face of Mr. Foster, He is un- 
doubtedly one of the ablest presiding ofhcers the Senate has ever 
possessed. Familiar with parliamentary law, strictly adhering to 
the forms and customs of the Senate, inflexible in maintaining 
order and decorum, yet ever kind and courteous, he sits like a 
stern old judge of ancient times, dispensing justice without fear 
and without favor." 

The added responsibility imposed upon Mr. Foster by 
this important position was borne by him with great dignity, 
and yet with no small measure of anxiety. The assassina- 
tion of President Lincoln had thrown the country into a 
fever of excitement. The personal demeanor and the 
declared policy of President Johnson had awakened the 
keenest apprehensions. In the event of Mr. Johnson's 
death, the chief magistracy would for the interval devolve 
upon Mr. Foster ; and at one time he had reason to fear 
that this unwelcome burden would fall upon him. 

A resolution of Congress, approved March 3, 1865, 
directed the appointment of a special committee " to in- 
quire into the present condition of the Indian tribes, and 
especially into the manner in which they are treated by the 
civil and military authorities of the United States." Mr. 
Foster was appointed one of the members of this commit- 
tee ; and, as before they set out upon their investigation 
he had become acting Vice-President of the United States, 
he was made the prominent figure of the expedition. At- 
tended by a large military escort, the party visited several 
important points in Colorado and New Mexico, and were 



42 

received with distinguished honor. At several places the 
visitors were called upon for addresses. Mr. Foster's re- 
marks on these occasions, which were printed in the local 
newspapers, exhibited a lively enthusiasm over the magnifi- 
cence of the West, and an earnest interest in all measures, 
including the construction of the Pacific Railroad, which 
conduced to its welfare and progress. Some interesting 
details of this expedition, from the pen of Hon. James R. 
Doolittle, who was chairman of the committee, will be 
found in the appendix. 

Mr. Foster entered into this journey with great relish 
and enthusiasm. The grandeur and beauty of the country 
filled him with admiration. In one of his letters he 
says, — 

"The Central Park in New York, the finest nobleman's park in 
England, is not as beautiful as the rolling prairie lying south of 
Leavenworth. The rounded symmetrical hills, the lines, the 
curves, all are perfect. Portions bear timber, portions not. Where 
not, the perfect smoothness of the surface would astonish you. 
Not a stick or bush or rock or ravine ! You could drive a pony 
carriage over every yard within the circle of vision, and not spill 
water from the cup of a tulip. You seem to be gazing around in 
the vernal sunshine upon one broad, bright, unbroken sea of emer- 
alds. The sight is enough to make one wish to break away and 
run off miscellaneously into space, like a deer or an antelope." 

The party set out on the 2 2d of May from St. Mary's 
Mission, on the Pottawattomie reservation, Kansas, under 
escort of Gen. McCook, with a hundred and fifty cavalry 
and thirty infantry. The infantry, with the visitors, rode in 
ambulances ; but the gendemen of the committee were also 
furnished with horses, and Mr. Foster spent much time in 
the saddle. His letters and diaries contain brief but glow- 



43 

ing bits of description of the scenery of the mountain 
regions. His narrations of incidents on this journey, as 
was usual with him, were scarcely more than memoranda. 
His retentive memory made any further record needless. 
His letters of travel promise "sights of stories" to his 
friends on his return, — a promise which was always most 
generously fulfilled. 

The party reached Santa Fe, New Mexico, on the ist of 
July, and on the 4th a ball was given in their honor. Simi- 
lar attentions were paid them in other places. At Fort 
Garland they were met about two miles out by a company 
of cavalry, which received Mr. Foster with presented arms, 
and escorted him into the fort under an arch festooned 
with evergreens, and a flag inscribed " Welcome to Vice- 
President Lafayette S. Foster." Among the villages of the 
Pueblos Mr. Foster was received by the Indians and the 
Mexicans with the utmost respect and veneration. His 
official dignity made him the greatest " Father" ("Tata") 
their eyes had ever beheld. Thousands came from all 
directions to shake hands with him. Some of the descend- 
ants of the old Spanish settlers, in their veneration for 
rank, pressed eagerly forward to kiss his hand. At this 
time he was the guest of the famous hunter Kit Carson, 
of whom he wrote, " His nature and manners are gentle 
and winning as a woman's." After Kit Carson's death, he 
offered to educate one of his sons. 

As the party were leaving Taos, New Mexico, on their 
return to Denver, they were met by a messenger, bringing 
to Mr. Foster telegrams from secretaries Seward and Stan- 
ton, urging his immediate return to Washington. This 
was occasioned by apprehensions for the health of Presi- 
dent Johnson, who was very ill at the time. On reaching 



44 

Denver, Mr. Foster received further telegrams, Informing 
him of Mr. Johnson's restoration, but requesting him not 
to venture out of reach of the telegraph. During the 
hurried journey from Taos to Denver, although Mr. Foster 
found time to appreciate and enjoy the grand and impres- 
sive scenery, his mind was deeply burdened with the 
thought of the grave responsibilities that threatened to 
rest upon him. It was with intense relief, therefore, that 
he read the re-assuring telegrams which met him at Denver. 
In his opinions upon the Indian question, Mr. Foster 
was entirely In sympathy with those who took the humane 
view. He often spoke with feeling of the cruelties which 
had been practised toward them by the whites, and was 
sometimes sarcastic in his criticisms of the extravagant 
financial policy of the Government in dealing with them. 
" It would be cheaper," he said, " to board every Indian in 
the country at our first-class hotels, at five dollars a day." 
He always thought them " more sinned against than sin- 
ning." 



[Extracts from a letter of Hon. J. R. Doolittle to Mrs. Foster, March 7, 188 1.] 

. . . "You recollect that Mr. Lincoln's assassination in April, 
1865, after our committee was raised, had made Mr. Foster, de facto, 
Vice-President ; and therefore, although I, as Chairman of the 
Senate Committee on Indian Affairs had been selected as Chair- 
man of the Joint Commission to do the work, we all resolved to 
bring him to the front in all our interviews with the Indians, — 
not as the Great Father himself, but as the one who stood nearest 
in that relation, to the dependent Indian tribes. ... 

" Some time in June, the exact date I do not now remember, we 
set out upon our journey, at the rate of about twenty-five miles a 
day. The weather was delightful, the air from the mountains, 



45 

over the plains of Kansas, pure and invigorating. We struck our 
tents very early in the morning, and made but one march. With- 
out halting we made about twenty-five miles, and then pitched our 
tents for the night, generally about three or four p.m., near some 
watering-place. No one could possibly enjoy the horseback rides 
from about six to eleven o'clock in the morning, before the sun be- 
came very hot and oppressive, more than did Mr. Foster. His 
horse had a very lively and spirited gait ; and he was always at the 
front, full of humor, enjoying and making others enjoy every 
thing. 

"We had been about two weeks on our journey before any 
thing of special interest occurred. All at once, about ten o'clock 
in the morning, an immense herd of buffaloes appeared in sight, 
about half a mile in front of us. All being mounted, instantly armed 
themselves with carbines and navy revolvers, and pushed forward 
at all possible speed, not to throw themselves across the route of the 
advancing herd, for they would have been overwhelmed — horses 
and riders — had they done so, but to strike them in their rear and 
upon their flank. 

" Into this wild and dangerous sport Mr. Foster entered with all 
enthusiasm. An enormous buffalo bull was singled out. He was 
fired upon, and wounded severely; but he turned upon his pur- 
suers, whose horses were greatly frightened, and turned back to- 
wards our train of teams and soldiers for safety, — the old bull 
slowly pursuing. As he appeared upon the crest of rising ground, 
the foremost span of mules caught sight of the gigantic beast. 
Like a flash of lightning they whirled around and ran at the top 
of their speed down the sloping prairie for nearly half a mile, 
upsetting the wagon, and scattering every thing upon the ground. 
Then followed such a panic among mules, and such cursing and 
swearing among mule drivers, as none can imagine who never 
were present on such an occasion. A fortunate shot from a Rem- 
ington carbine at last brought down the huge and infuriated beast, 
and peace and tranquillity reigned once more through the whole 
camp. . . . 

" During all this excitement of the chase, and of the panic among 



46 

the mules of our train, Mr. Foster enjoyed himself immensely. 
His wit and humor and merry glee were flowing in a continual 
stream. . . . 

" From Maxwell's Ranch, New Mexico, we passed down south- 
west to Fort Union, where we stopped over for a day or two. 
Upon resuming our march, passing down on the right side of a 
valley through which one of the small branches of the Canadian 
River flows, we had not proceeded many miles when, suddenly, we 
came to a halt ; and the important announcement was made by 
Gen. McCook, that a whole band of the Mescalero Apaches had 
just been captured by a company of our soldiers, and were then 
eii route to Fort Union. 

" Here was upon the face of things an important event, and 
one which our committee could not overlook. Gen. McCook, who 
besides being a good soldier was a very good actor and spoke the 
Spanish language, determined to introduce the chiefs and warriors 
of the captive tribe, who understood a little Spanish, to the com- 
mittee, and especially to the Vice-President of the United States, 
in becoming style. So every thing was put in the very best order 
to produce a most profound impression upon the savages. A mes- 
senger was sent forward with orders to the officer in command of 
our victorious troops to bring the captives across the valley to the 
place where we were halted to receive them. 

" The warriors, about forty in number, were on foot. The women 
with their children, blankets, and other worldly goods were mounted 
upon ponies. They approached. The tall chief dressed in deer 
skin, with all his paint and feathers on, came up in grand style 
and with a certain dignity and grace. He, of course, was the first 
to be introduced to that high officer who stood second only to the 
Great Father himself, in the estimation of all the Indian tribes. 

" Gen. McCook in his best style and best Spanish made a little 
speech, and then introduced the head chief of the Mescaleros to 
the Vice-President. Imagine our astonishment when, instead of 
taking Mr. Foster's right hand as he extended it to him, the tall 
chief walked directly up to him in front, and in true Spanish style 
threw his long arms around and embraced him, — warmly, strongly 



47 

embraced him, I might say literally 'hugged' him, — ejaculating in 
Spanish, " Bueno ! Bueno ! " Then followed the lesser chiefs and 
warriors one by one, until each had given him the same earnest 
embrace. 

" As the last one left him Mr. Foster breathed deeper and freer, 
thinking the thing at last was over ; but in this he was sadly mis- 
taken, for the real agony was yet to come. Soon as the men had 
finished, the women began to dismount, and, one after the other, in 
the same style and with the same words of welcome, gave him the 
same earnest embraces. As they were not as tall as the men, their 
painted faces came against the breast and collar of his coat, which, 
like Joseph's, became a coat of many colors long before the grand 
ceremony was over. 

" When with becoming fortitude and patience he had borne all 
this grand introduction to an Indian tribe, he quietly suggested 
that perhaps the other members of the committee would like to 
go through the same ceremony ; which they as quietly declined, 
asserting that one such ceremony was all-sufficient to establish 
friendly relations with the captives. 

..." Having taking considerable testimony at Santa Fe as to 
the causes which led to the war with the Navajoes, we passed 
northward up the Rio Grande into the Park, and thence by Fort 
Garland and the Huerfano Pass over the Rocky Mountains, whose 
highest peaks were covered with eternal snows, into the valley of 
the Arkansas. We passed over the mountains on horseback. The 
scenery was grand and imposing beyond any thing I saw in Swit- 
zerland. Of course all this was a source of intense enjoyment 
to Mr. Foster, awakening in him the deepest enthusiasm. Exhila- 
rated by the sight, a touch of high poetic sentiment would occa- 
sionally find impromptu expression, or bring out most apt quota- 
tions. I wish, for your sake, I could give you his words. But 
sixteen years have come and gone since we were riding there 
together ; and while his words have faded from my memory, their 
sweetness and fragrance cling to it still." 



k 



48 

In May, 1866, after a close and violent contest, Mr. Fos- 
ter was defeated in the Republican caucus of the Connecti- 
cut Legislature, as a candidate for a third term. It is 
needless in this place to enter into the details. The oppo- 
sition was based partly on dissatisfaction with his prudent 
and conservative policy in the Senate, partly upon ardent 
personal attachments in other quarters, and partly upon 
the well-recognized geographical precedents of the State. 
Undoubtedly at the outset a majority of the Legislature 
was in his favor. His re-election had been used as a 
powerful incitement to activity, during the preceding can- 
vass for State officers. It had been accepted by his friends, 
as an assured fact. Mr. Foster himself, had, as usual, made 
no exertions to insure his personal triumph. When the 
sum of a thousand dollars was contributed to the chair- 
man of the Republican State committee, to be exclusively 
devoted to securing the election to the Legislature of Mr. 
Foster's friends, he refused to permit the fund to be thus 
expended, and insisted, that it should be applied to the 
proper expenses, of the general canvass. But, when the 
Legislature assembled, powerful influences w^ere brought 
to bear upon some of the members. Unjustifiable repre- 
sentations were used, with marked consequences. Among 
these was one, to the effect, that the most eminent of his 
Republican colleagues in the Senate desired his defeat, on 
account of his " sympathy " with the policy of Mr. John- 
son's administration. This unfounded report brought out 
denials from several senators. The following-, from Senator 
Fessenden of Maine, at that time the Republican leader of 
the Senate, was among the number published : — 

" I understand that an objection has been made to the re-election 
of Senator Foster, to the effect that he did not possess the confi- 



49 

dence of our friends in the full extent. Upon this point, I feel it 
my duty to say, that, from the time when Senator Foster took his 
place in this Senate, I have entertained for him great respect and 
confidence. I look upon him as one of our most reliable, able, and 
useful members. I think, that, after the record we have made of 
twelve years of service in the Senate, it would be unfair to impute 
to either of us a want of faithfulness to our party obligations, or of 
devotion to the best interests of the country. There is no ground 
whatever to doubt the perfect truth and uprightness, in all his rela- 
tions, of the distinguished senator, who so acceptably presides over 
the deliberations of the Senate. Be pleased to excuse my thus 
volunteering to give testimony where I trust none is needed." 



Although defeated by a few votes in the nominating 
caucus, Mr. Foster was urged to stand as an independent 
candidate, being assured of Democratic support. After 
deliberation, however, he declined, and peremptorily with- 
drew his name from before the Legislature, against the 
remonstrances of prominent Republicans, both at home, and 
in Washington. To a friend, he wrote, " My withdrawal I 
regarded as a matter of duty, under all the circumstances : 
and, that being so, it was certainly a matter of expediency ; 
for right is the highest expediency." In his defeat, the 
State of Connecticut exemplified her stubborn adherence to 
precedent usage, which, at that date, out of twenty senators, 
who had represented her in Congress, had returned only six 
for a second term, and for a third term, not one. 

Those who knew intimately the value and importance of 
Mr. Foster's services at Washington, and the influence 
which he gave to his native State In shaping public policy, 
were grievously disappointed, at this unlooked-for event. 
Letters from personal friends, and from men prominent in 
the public service, poured in from all parts of the country. 



50 

One of these, from the pen of Professor Henry, may be 
properly quoted here as fairly illustrative of the general 
tone of this correspondence : — 

Washington, Smithsonian Institution, June 6, iS66. 

. . . " I could hardly believe that so enlightened a State as 
Connecticut, would be so bhnd to its own honor, and the best inter- 
ests of the nation, as not to re-elect such a man as Mr. Foster. 
This thought I shared with every reflecting person who is ac- 
quainted with your honored husband, or who has given attention 
to his public career. It was supposed, that his State would be 
proud of one, who had so won the confidence and esteem of his 
companions, as to be unanimously chosen by them, to preside over 
their deliberations, and to discharge the duties of the second office 
in the government of the nation. 

" I look upon his non-election, as a calamity to the country, both 
in the loss of his service in the Senate, and in its indication of the 
spread of the tendency to political changes, which cannot be other 
than prejudicial, to the best interests of the government. With 
the increase of our population, and the consequent enlargement of 
the number of interests involved, the legislation of the nation must 
every year become more complex and difficult, requiring higher 
intelligence and greater theoretical, as well as practical, knowledge. 

" The business of legislation, like all other pursuits, requires 
devotion of thought and long experience ; and every year that is 
added to the term of service of a senator of the character of Mr. 
Foster, adds to his influence and efficiency. His knowledge of 
what has been done, and his familiarity with forms, as well as with 
principles, are of great importance, and must increase in value 
with the length of service. Fluency of speech and ordinary com- 
mon sense, even when joined with honesty of purpose, by no 
means suffice, as qualifications for a proper legislator, besides 
these, he must have a mind capable of grasping the widest gener- 
alizations, and of logical power, to deduce from them, consequences 
of immediate applicability to the wants of the time, together with 
learning, to urge the right in such language, as will command atten- 



51 

tion and insure conviction, while it is in strict accordance with 
refined rhetoric, and does credit to the culture, as well as the 
sagacity, of our legislators. 

" When a man of the character of Mr. Foster has been chosen, 
and has fully developed his powers, he should be kept in the posi- 
tion of a senator, as long as his mental and physical energies will 
enable him properly to discharge the duties of the office. It was 
by adopting such a course, that a galaxy of great men were found 
a few years ago in the Senate of the United States. It was by 
having ample time allowed them to study the great questions of 
policy, and to gain the necessary experience in the art of states- 
manship, that Webster, Clay, Adams, Benton, and others were en- 
abled to exert so wide and important an influence over the popular 
mind of the country. If the rule of rotation in office, is to be 
generally applied to the election of senators, then farewell to the 
dignity, the wisdom, and integrity of that body, to which we look 
for the conservative influence and cautious legislation, which alone 
can perpetuate our present form of government, 

" But it is not alone on account of the loss to the nation, that I 
deeply regret the non-election of Mr. Foster. He is, ex officio, one 
of the regents of this Institution ; and I have rejoiced in the expecta- 
tion of having him a member of the Board of Directors, to whom I 
could always look with confidence, for counsel and support. 

"In this city, I have not spoken with a single person on the 
subject, who does not regret that Mr. Foster was not re-elected, or 
who does not consider the fact that he is not, a bad omen for the 
future of our poHtical condition. But however his non-election 
may be regretted by others, it can scarcely be considered a source 
of disquietude to himself, since in political life he must have 
encountered much at variance with the refined sensibility of his 
nature ; and in the constant pressure of public business he must 
have longed for the opportunity of calm contemplation so necessary 
to the cultivation of literature and science, to which his tastes are 
strongly inclined." . . . 



52 

Mr. Foster, however, bore his defeat with characteristic 
equanimity, and in his after-hfe found occasions to repay 
with kindness and aid, some, whose conduct at this time 
had been unmanly, if not treacherous. His own feehngs 
may be well understood from the following passages of a 
letter to one of his friends, where his seriousness of char- 
acter appears in happy contrast with his playful humor : — 

"The loss of my election did not seriously affect my digestion 
or my sleep, and will not, I fancy, affect the crops. . . . The 
events of one's life do not happen by chance, but are under the 
control of One who is all-wise and all-merciful. How infinitely 
little do we know as to what is best for us to-day, much less for to- 
morrow, next week, or next year ! With peace of conscience; and a 
submissive disposition, we cannot be very far from being happy." 

On the 2d of March, 1867, Mr. Foster resigned the 
offtce of President of the Senate, his term as a senator 
being about to expire. Mr. Anthony of Rhode Island, in 
offeringf the formal resolution of thanks to the retirino- 
officer, addressed the Senate as follows : — 

"Mr. President, I know that I echo the sentiment of every 
senator upon this floor, to whichever party he may belong, when 
I bear testimony to the high ability, the uniform courtesy, and the 
unvarying impartiality, with which the duties of presiding officer 
have been performed, during the Congress, that is about to close. 
The chair, sir, to which you have just been called by the unani- 
mous voice of your peers in this chamber, has been filled by elec- 
tion of the Senate, by some of the most eminent men who have 
embellished the annals of American statesmanship. John Lang- 
don, Richard Henry Lee, Theodore Sedgewick, James Barbour, 
Nathaniel Macon, William H. Crawford, William R. King, Samuel 
L. Southard, William P. Maguire, Hugh L. White, Solomon Foot, 
and others not less eminent, have been president pro tern, of the 



53 

Senate. It is safe to say, that by none of them, have the duties of 
the chair been performed, more to the credit of the officer, or more 
to the satisfaction of the Senate, tlian by the retiring president, 
pTO teiii. Fortunate will it be for those who shall succeed him, if, 
when they come to lay down the high dignity, which he has just 
resigned, they shall take with them so large a share of the respect, 
the confidence, and the affection of their associates in this chamber. 
Fortunate will it be for the Senate, if the same knowledge of par- 
liamentary law, and the same prompt application of its principles, 
shall guide their discussions, and the same impartial dignity pre- 
side over their deliberations." 

Mr. Foster's retirement from the Senate, was noticed 
with very general regret, by the Republican press of the 
country ; although his friend and successor. Gen. O. S. 
Ferry, fully possessed the confidence of his party. No 
one was more surprised than Gen. Ferry himself at the 
result of the senatorial contest ; for he was a warm admirer 
of Mr. Foster, and confidently expected his re-election. 
Wherever the value of cultivated talents and high personal 
character in public men was appreciated, the hope was 
expressed that Mr. Foster would not long remain absent 
from the councils of the country, where his influence had 
been so conspicuous and beneficent. One brief notice of 
his retirement, from one of the daily journals, may be 
properly quoted here : — 

" Almost all of our Republican, and many of our Democratic, 
exchanges, have referred in most complimentary terms to the late 
president of the Senate, Hon. L. F. S. Foster. All unite in an 
indorsement of the tribute paid him by his fellow-senators, as a 
dignified, courteous, and impartial presiding officer ; and nearly all 
justly applaud his honorable and useful senatorial career. These 
expressions of esteem, at this time, must be exceedingly gratifying 



54 

to the retiring senator, for he has, during his term of office, been 
sharply criticised at times, by some of those, who are now most 
cordial in their praise. These criticisms were for the greater part 
called out by Mr. Foster's alleged conservatism and timidity ; yet 
a review of his record, will show an almost unbroken succession of 
votes upon the great questions of the day, with which the most 
exacting radical cannot fail to be satisfied. Naturally prudent, 
temperate, and cautious, and having a distaste for the rougher and 
more aggressive methods of carrying out political policy, he has on 
some occasions, inevitably given offence to those of his party, who, 
while not more essentially radical than he, have been more sharply 
stimulated by partisan feeling, or who, with an inflexible determina- 
tion to push a political principle to the end, have cared less than 
he, about details, or have had smaller regard for those things which 
past party traditions had pronounced good, and sufficient. He is 
not an extremist, and therefore the extreme men of his party have 
often found him, weighing with caution, opinions adopted by them 
as correct, beyond question. This we believe to be the extent of 
what has given rise to criticism of Mr. Foster's career as a states- 
man. Between him and the great majority of his party, there is an 
entire sympathy in opinions. At this time, however, criticism is 
disarmed ; for his term of service is ended, and the senator has 
for the present retired from public duties. Having aided by his 
eminent and honorable services, in giving Connecticut a fame and 
influence at the national capital, equal to that, enjoyed by the most 
illustrious of her sister States, he may be cheered by the reflection, 
that he occupies in the minds and hearts of those whom he has 
represented, a position of greater esteem and honor, than at any 
previous time of his public service." 



55 

At the expiration of his senatorial term, in March, 1867, 
Mr. Foster returned to the practice of the law in Norwich. 
At this time his name was prominently mentioned in con- 
nection with the Austrian mission, then made vacant by 
the removal of Mr. Motley. It was even alleged by some 
malicious persons, that he was seeking the office, and that 
there was doubt of his confirmation by the Senate in the 
event of his obtaining the appointment. In regard to the 
latter point, the well-informed "Providence Journal" re- 
marked, " Mr. Foster has been in Washington on strictly 
professional business. No man in the country is better 
fitted to serve it at home or abroad ; and, should the Presi- 
dent do so sensible and patriotic a thing as to nominate 
Mr. Foster for any place which he would accept, he would 
not find it necessary to canvass for a confirmation, among 
his former associates, whose respect and confidence he 
possesses, to a degree rarely accorded to any man." Mr. 
Foster did not receive the nomination. The reason is, no 
doubt, correctly hinted at in the following statement made 
at the time by a sagacious newspaper correspondent : 
" Perhaps at last President Johnson will send in the name 
of Mr. Foster. The Senate is quite anxious that he shall, 
and it may be, for that very reason, he refuses to nominate 
him." 

In the spring of 1870 Mr. Foster again represented the 
town of Norwich in the General Assembly of the State. 
On being asked if it was not rather a " stepping down " for 
a man, after having been so long President of the United 
States Senate, to accept a seat in the State Legislature, he 
replied, " Not if he is sure he can be useful there. Wher- 
ever a man can really do good, there it is no condescension 
for him to employ himself." He was again elected Speaker 



56 

of the House, after a unanimous nomination by the Re- 
pubhcan caucus. Later in the session, he was chosen 
associate justice of the Supreme Court of the State, 
receiving every vote cast in the Senate, and a hundred 
and ninety-seven, out of two hundred and two, votes in 
the House. This remarkable unanimity of feehng, on the 
part of the Legislature, without distinction of party, found 
expression from Mr. Hamersley of Hartford, one of the 
prominent Democratic representatives, on the occasion of 
Mr. Foster's resignation of the Speakership, on the i6th 
of June. Mr. Hamersley offered the resolution of thanks, 
and remarked that he knew " it met the views of every 
member of the House." "This House," he said, "had 
always, so far as he remembered, had presiding officers 
who addressed themselves faithfully to the discharge of 
their duties ; but Mr. Foster had never had a superior, as 
a presiding officer in this House, nor had he a superior, 
as a presiding officer of that august body, the Senate of the 
United States. He was glad, that he had been promoted 
to the highest court in the State with such unanimity, a 
position which he would fill, with so much credit to himself 
and service to the State." 

In the autumn of this year, after holding his first term 
of court in June, Judge Foster made a brief trip to Europe. 
As the time approached for the second term of the court 
to begin, he was anxious to return to it, being always 
unwilling, as he expressed it, to " shirk his duties." He 
therefore left Mrs. Foster in Florence, and hastened north- 
ward. Reaching Brussels, he was prostrated by a malarial 
attack. After a brief delay, however, he was able to pro- 
ceed as far as London, where he again became ill. There 
he received the kind attentions of the United States Con- 



57 

sul, as in Belgium he had been affectionately attended by 
his friend Mr. Sanford, the United States Minister to that 
court. After considerable delay, he took passage on board 
a steamer bound for Boston, — the only one, by which he 
could then reach home In season. He had a long and 
stormy passage. He reached Norwich In the midst of a 
heavy snow-storm, at nearly midnight of the day before the 
term of court began. He departed by the first available 
train for New Haven, and entered the court- room, dinner- 
less, one of the first of the judges to appear, at the post 
of service. This energetic and prompt attention to duty, 
was always characteristic of him. 

At the expiration of this term of court, he returned to 
Europe, and, meeting Mrs. Foster in Geneva, enjoyed a 
delightful, though hurried trip, of three months through 
Switzerland and Great Britain. They made a hasty pas- 
sage through France, the recent termination of the Franco- 
Prussian War having left that country (Paris especially) in 
a most disorganized and uninviting condition for travellers. 
They were among the very first to enter the capital after 
the Communists had laid down their arms, thinking, that 
even to see that proud city in ruins, was better than not to 
see it at all. But It was a painful visit to them, and they 
hurried across the Channel. In common with hundreds of 
European tourists at that time, and owing to the especial 
blunders of a commissionnaire to whom, in going over the 
Alps, they had intrusted them, they lost their trunks, which 
were not regained until their return to America. In this 
way a brilliant social career in England, was lost to Mr. 
Foster ; as valuable letters of introduction he had received 
to eminent personages there, whom he ought to have 
known, and meant to know, were hopelessly wandering in 



58 

those trunks. But this accident gave him the more un- 
nterrupted time for sight- seeing, which was diligently 
improved. 

He held the judgeship till 1876, when, having reached 
the age of seventy years, he became disqualified by statu- 
tory limitation. During his term upon the bench, Mr. 
Foster so bore himself, as to win the esteem and respect of 
the bar by his dignity, impartiality, and courteous patience 
in attending to the details of cases. In the discharge of 
his duties, as superior-court judge, he often manifested the 
characteristics of an old-time magistrate, seeking to do 
equity, exercising a paternal interest in the affairs of the 
litigants before him, and addressing words of kind and 
sympathetic counsel, to the unfortunates, whose crimes 
brougrht them under the sentence of the law. The follow- 
ing narration, from the columns of a newspaper of the day, 
illustrates one of the finest features in the character of 
Judge Foster : — 

" Two brothers named Adams, of Westport, had been on un- 
friendly terms for several years ; and a short time ago they came to 
blows. Each of them complained to a justice, and each of them 
was found guilty of a breach of the peace. Both appealed. Their 
cases came before the Superior Court last week; and one of them 
was found guilty, and in the case of the other the jury could not 
agree. Friday morning, Judge Foster called both of them before 
him, and talked to them in a most serious manner, and, after a 
short review of the affair, told them that it was entirely wrong and 
shameful for them to conduct in such a manner toward each other. 
' Even strangers live in peace, and why should not you ? You have 
not even the excuse of youth and hot blood, but have arrived at an 
age when the passions should be under control.' He then appealed 
to one of them, in a slightly sarcastic manner, 'You have always 
treated your brother well .-• ' — ' Yes.' — ' And he has always abused 



59 

you ? ' — * Yes.' He then turned to the other with the same ques- 
tions, and received similar answers. ' Then,' said he, ' You are both 
to blame. There is fault on both sides, and I don't know which is 
the worse.' He then showed them the folly of their present dis- 
pute, and admonished them if they had any grievance in the future 
about property, to either settle it among themselves, or to call in 
their neighbors to help them. ' But do not go to law : law is an 
expensive luxury.' Then he appealed to them both to be friends 
hereafter, and turning to one of them, he put the question solemnly, 

as in a marriage-service, ' You, Adams, do promise on your 

part that you will be friends in the future with your brother ? ' The 
response came ringing out, 'I will' Then to the other the judge 

put the same question, ' You, Adams, do promise,' etc. ; to 

which came an equally prompt ' I will.' — * Then shake hands,' said 
the judge; and as they did so there was not a dry eye in the 
court-room. One of the brothers sobbed out, ' By the blessing of 
God I will try and live peaceably with my brother.' The other 
signified the same. ' Then,' said the judge, addressing the one who 
had been found guilty, ' I impose upon you the lightest sentence 
of the court, one dollar ; and I discharge your bond.' During the 
closing scenes of this remarkable address of the judge, the State 
attorney and the members of the bar were all affected to tears." 

In this connection it is appropriate to quote the follow- 
ing extracts from a letter written by Mr. H. T. Blake, clerk 
of the Superior Court of Fairfield County : — 

" It is not surprising that Judge Foster stood so high in the 
affections and honor of the community. Rarely is there united in 
the same person so much of commanding dignity with so much of 
gentleness, and even tenderness, of disposition and heart. Many 
proofs of the latter characteristic might be mentioned. During his 
official career as judge, it often happened to him to preside in crim- 
inal trials ; and in these cases especially it was really affecting some- 
times to see how beautifully the lofty virtue of the man, as judge, 
mingled with a pity and sorrow and tenderness towards the crimi- 



6o 

nal that was almost womanly. In cases arising out of intemper- 
ance, or connected with the sale of intoxicating liquors, his feelings 
were always particularly warm and deep. I well remember one 
occasion, when he was delivering his charge to the jury in a crimi- 
nal case, where one part of the evidence was given by a little boy 
about twelve years of age, who had been sent by his father on Sun- 
day morning with a tin pail to buy him some rum. When the 
judge alluded to this testimony, and spoke of the little boy with a 
tin pail of rum on his way to a drunken father, and meeting other 
little boys going to church on that bright Sunday morning, his voice 
faltered ; he struggled on ; but in spite of himself he became so 
agitated that he at last broke down entirely, and it was not until 
after several minutes that he was able to proceed. 

"But, while there was so much of gentleness in him, it was not 
from weakness that it arose. In all matters of duty he was as 
inflexible as adamant, requiring the strict performance of obliga- 
tions by others, and, what is much more rare, most rigidly imposing 
it on himself. I do not know that I could give a better illustration 
of this than by relating an incident which occurred under my own 
observation. He was holding court in Bridgeport, and had reached 
the last court day (Friday, I think) of the week. A case was on 
trial at noon, very nearly finished ; and on coming into court he 
said (what I never knew him to say before) that he had a very 
important engagement at Norwich in the evening, and that he was 
anxious to close the case, if possible, in time to leave on the five 
o'clock train. All parties assisted in expediting the trial as much 
as possible ; and, as the hour of five approached, the case was sub- 
stantially finished : lawyers and parties were just preparing to hand 
in the final papers, and the judge was hastily collecting his memo- 
randa, etc., to depart, when some new idea at the last moment 
caught the mind of one of the counsel who was noted for his 
tenacity and tediousness, and he expressed a wish to expand it in 
an additional argument. 'I will hear you, sir,' said the judge 
promptly. ' But,' said the lawyer hesitatingly, as he looked at the 
clock, ' Your Honor wants to leave at five o'clock, and you have 
now only just time enough to reach the cars.' I looked at the 



6i 

judge's face. It was perfectly grand as he replied without a mo- 
ment's hesitation, * That is nothing to the purpose, sir. My duty 
is here, and my private convenience must give way.' And so he 
sat unflinchingly to hear a superfluous argument of fifteen minutes 
in length, and lost the last train for the day, involving a delay of 
nearly twenty-four hours in reaching Norwich ; nor did I or any 
one else hear a single expression of impatience or complaint on 
account of his disappointment or the cause of it. 

" I need not refer to his intellectual qualities, his ability dis- 
played in every position of private and public life, his learning as 
a lawyer, or his spotless personal and political integrity. These 
were known and read of all men, and have been the themes of 
numerous eulogies. Nor has it been any part of my purpose to give 
a general sketch of his character; but I have thought you might 
be pleased to learn the above incidents, small in themselves, but 
interesting as thoroughly characteristic of one of whom it can be 
said with rare fidelity to truth, — 

'None knew him but to love him, 
None named him but to praise.' " 

Mr. Foster's intellectual qualities appeared to rare ad- 
vantage during his service upon the Supreme Bench. His 
strength and readiness of memory were very often exem- 
plified by apt quotations, as the following note, appended 
to the minutes of the reporter of the court, Mr. John 
Hooker, in a case argued in Fairfield County, in 187-6, will 
testify : — 

" One of the counsel, in his brief, had quoted the well-known 
passage, ' The discretion of the judge is the law of tyrants,' and 
ascribed it to Lord Brougham. Judge Foster, at the close of his 
argument, called his attention to an error he had made as to the 
author of the remark, stating that it was not Lord Brougham, but 
Lord Camden, and then went on to give the entire passage, as 



62 

follows ; — 'The discretion of the judge is the law of tyrants. It is 
different in different men ; it is casual, and depends upon constitu- 
tion, temper, and passion. In the best it is oftentimes caprice ; in 
the worst it is every vice, folly, and passion to which human nature 
is liable.' 

" Judge Foster is most remarkable for his verbal memory. It 
exceeds that of any one else I have ever known. He is always 
ready with the happiest of quotations from classical writers and 
poets, in both English and Latin. He goes off the court next 
November, when he will have attained the age of seventy. His 
retirement is a cause of general regret, and to me of absolute sor- 
row, I have come to feel so great an attachment for him, and to 
enjoy his society so much." 

Mr. Foster's judicial opinions, as recorded in the court 
registers, exhibit a profound research, and a clear and dis- 
criminating judgment. His service as referee, or " com- 
mittee," as it is legally designated in Connecticut, in a 
cause celebre, the Nichols divorce suit at Bridgeport, was 
masterly, and gave him a high and deserved repute. The 
case was complicated, and the evidence conflicting in the 
extreme ; but Mr. Foster's findings were universally ac- 
quiesced in as conclusive and just. 

In the case of Goodwin vs. the New York, New Haven, 
and Hartford Railroad Company, he condemns the custom 
of giving free passes to public officers, and especially 
judges, and enforces the necessity of purity in the ad- 
ministration of justice. He says, — 

"The administration of justice should not only be pure, but, as 
far as possible, free from suspicion. That a gift perverteth the 
ways of judgment, is a truth coming to us with so lofty a sanction 
that it may not be questioned. Lord Chief Justice Hale, whom 
Lord Campbell justly describes an object of admiration and love to 



63 

all his cotemporaries, and as a model of public and private virtue 
to succeeding generations, refused to try the cause of a party who 
had sent him a present of some venison, until his butler had ascer- 
tained and paid its full value. The payment being refused, the 
cause was postponed. This by some was thought to be over-scru- 
pulous, and possibly it may have been so ; but, for myself, I prefer 
on this subject to err with Lord Hale rather than to follow Lord 
Bacon." 

In the case of Kirtland vs. Hotchkiss (Conn. Reports 42, 
p. 442), a suit to recover taxes assessed upon a* sum of 
money loaned in Chicago, and secured by a mortgage 
upon real estate there, Mr. Foster delivered an elaborate 
opinion, dissenting from the other judges. This opinion 
has been described as, " in point of legal and economic 
wisdom, and clearness of reasoning, confessedly equal to 
any similar opinion that has heretofore emanated from the 
Connecticut bench." The point of the opinion is expressed 
in this statement : V' Property and a debt (considered as a 
representative of the property pledged for its payment) 
constitute together but one subject for the purpose of 
taxation. . . . The debt, indeed, aside from the property 
behind it, and of v^hich it is the representative, is simply 
worthless." The situs of the debt in question being in 
Illinois, Mr. Foster held that it ought not to be taxed in 
Connecticut. As the majority of the court sustained the 
Connecticut practice of taxing money loaned on foreign 
mortgage, this case was appealed to the Supreme Court of 
the United States. There the decision of the Connecticut 
court was sustained, though mainly on the ground that it 
was a matter for a State to regulate at its discretion, and 
not one that the Supreme Court could review. The phi- 
losophy of the matter, into which Judge Foster's opinion 



64 

entered so deeply, was not discussed at any length by the 
higher court. This and some others of Judge Foster's 
opinions are worthy of more extended consideration than 
falls within the scope of this brief memorial. An exhaust- 
ive review, with citations, of the Kirtland opinion, was con- 
tributed by Hon. David A. Wells to the columns of the 
"Atlantic Monthly" for September, 1877. 



In February, 1875, while yet serving upon the bench, 
Mr. Foster was nominated for representative in Congress 
by " a convention of delegates representing the Democrats 
and liberal Republicans, and all other electors of the third 
congressional district who do not approve of the usurpa- 
tions and corruptions of the present administration of the 
Federal government." This nomination was in opposition 
to Mr. Foster's wishes, and was accepted by him with great 
reluctance, in the belief that it was his duty. Mr. Foster 
had earnestly advocated the election of Gen. Grant in 
1868, but, like many other eminent Republicans, had be- 
come dissatisfied with the policy of his administration, and 
believed the tendencies of an influential portion of the 
Republican leadership were toward corruption. He had 
in 1872 given his support to Horace Greeley for the presi- 
dency, although he did not prefer him as a candidate to 
represent his opinions. On the occasion of his nomination 
to Congress, Mr. Foster received the trust " not as a party 
man in the partisan sense of the term," as he declared in 



65 

his formal letter of acquiescence. His opinions respecting 
the existing state of public affairs were not presented in 
any detail in this document, but are given in a more elabo- 
rate manuscript, which he prepared at the time, but was 
persuaded not to make public. From this paper it appears 
that he was extremely dissatisfied with the financial policy 
of the Government. He characterized it as vague and 
contradictory, and calculated to continue the depression of 
the business interests of the country. He declared himself 
emphatically in favor of hard money and a sound currency. 
He also expressed great dissatisfaction with the Southern 
policy of the administration, avowing his belief that the 
army should be entirely withdrawn, or at least not kept in 
the South as a menace. He referred to the disasters 
brought to the South by the "carpet-bag" governments, 
and expressed his belief that the only remedy was to in- 
trust the government to the hands of the native citizens. 
He did not apprehend any war of races, or any continued 
oppression of the blacks. The blacks he declared to be no 
wards of the Government, entitled to special protection, 
but citizens like the whites, and entitled to the same and 
no more privileges. He would leave contested election 
questions to the constitutional tribunals, and not decide 
them by the bayonet. If these tribunals settled them un- 
justly, he would still prefer such decisions to right ones 
compelled by military force. He would only resort to the 
strong arm of the Government in the constitutional way, in 
the case of disorders beyond the power of the local govern- 
ment to quell. He would entirely abandon the coercive 
policy. " If," he says, " we cannot win back the South by 
words and deeds of kindness and friendship, they will not 
be won. We shall never win them by force. No people 



66 

are ever worth winning in that way." Mr. Foster did not, 
either in this document or in his pubHc acceptance, avow 
any conviction that the Democratic party would, if success- 
ful, adopt any wiser policy, but he thought any change 
would be an improvement. "What I look for," he says in 
this unpublished manuscript, " and pray for most of all is, 
that, a change being effected, the best men, the wisest 
men of all parties, will unite cordially together, and estab- 
lish a policy which shall, with the divine blessing, give 
peace and happiness, prosperity and perpetuity, to these 
United States of America." 

Mr. Foster received very little support in the congres- 
sional canvass from the Republicans of the third district, 
which was always strongly radical. He took his defeat, 
which he anticipated, calmly and cheerfully, sustained by 
the consciousness that he had endeavored to do right. 
He was spared long enough to see his opinions on the 
subject of the Southern policy shared by President Grant, 
and carried out by President Hayes, whose nomination he 
warmly approved, presiding over a public meeting held in 
Norwich to ratify it. He also had the satisfaction of see- 
ing the Republican administrative policy tend in the direc- 
tion of financial soundness and honesty. The nomination 
of Gen. Garfield, in 1880, for the presidential succession, 
gave him great pleasure. This congressional canvass was 
Mr. Foster's last participation in an elective political con- 
test. In 1877 he was again nominated by the Republicans 
of Norwich to represent the town in the General Assembly, 
but declined the honor, owing to business and personal 
engagements. 



67 

On the 24th of May, 1876, with reference to Mr. Fos- 
ter's retirement from the bench, ** The Norwich Bulletin " 
said, — 

" Mention was made yesterday, in our report of the proceedings 
of the General Assembly, that the governor had laid before that 
body a letter from Judge Foster, resigning his place upon the 
Supreme Court bench of the State, in accordance with that pro- 
vision of the Constitution which limits the service of judges by 
the attainment of the age of seventy. Although this resignation 
will not take effect until the second Monday of next November, 
yet its presentation was necessary at this time in order that the 
General Assembly, now in session, might fill the coming vacancy. 
Indeed, it has been anticipated for weeks ; and already the respec- 
tive merits of the candidates for the succession have been publicly 
and widely canvassed. 

"Mr. Foster's withdrawal from the judicial service of the State 
is a subject for profound regret, inasmuch as he yet maintains his 
full intellectual and bodily vigor, with a promise of doing so for 
many years to come, and has performed the duties of his office 
with an application to labor, conscientious purity of motive, and a 
degree of ability which we regret are so seldom equalled. Both 
nature and experience have combined to qualify him for service on 
the bench. He possesses a dignity of spirit, a deep, instinctive 
sense of justice, a keenness of perception, and a broad comprehen- 
siveness of view, richly developed by his long experience at the 
bar, his service in the state and national councils, and his presiden- 
cies of the Connecticut House of Representatives and the United 
States Senate. 

*' This penetration and love of right was ever noticeable in his 
charges to juries in criminal cases, when he exposes the true 
merits of the case, and clears away the fine-spun cobwebs of the 
argument in a manner appalling to both prisoner and counsel. 
Indeed, lawyers who have occasion to advocate divorces, with a 
poor case and an ex parte hearing, have learned by experience to 
evade, if possible, the risk of his sharp cross-examination of wit- 



68 

nesses, intended to get at the truth they are striving to conceal. 
And yet, while vigorous and even stern in his search for, and 
maintenance of, the right, he possesses a singularly humane dis- 
position, manifested in his frequent and generally successful efforts 
to reconcile the contending parties in litigation, and in the tender- 
ness and discretion of his remarks to culprits, especially the young, 
in imposing sentences. 

" The promptness of his rulings reveals great quickness of intel- 
lect, in which respect he is particularly well fitted for Superior 
Court duty. However, he tends away from, rather than toward, 
technicalities. This trait, his horror of verbosity, and the breadth 
of view which enables one to see clearly all the salient points 
above the multiplicity of minor details, give character to his opin- 
ions, when serving in the Supreme Court. Another quality, for 
the observance of which the Superior Court affords better play 
than the Supreme, is that marked dignity with which he presides, 
which is almost austere, yet ever graceful ; which unbends at times 
to a happy bit of facetiousness, yet firmly restrains levity, discoun- 
tenances artifice and slip-shod work, and commands the respect 
and even the awe of the bar. This seems to spring from the man's 
estimation of the spirit above the law, and his own profound rever- 
ence of the eternal source of all law. Thus justice and its admin- 
istration become clothed with a majesty and sacredness too great 
to allow of wrangling, trickery, or shallowness, and worthy only of 
the serious and most earnest endeavors of its profound advocates. 

" It has not been our aim to tell the full worth of Mr. Foster as a 
Judge. To do so now might not be within the limits of propriety, 
even were it within our power. But we cannot let the occasion of 
his resignation pass without some faint tribute to the eminent 
ability that has characterized this branch of his service to the 
State, and the expression of deep regret that it is so near its end." 



69 

After his retirement from the bench, Judge Foster re- 
sumed the practice of the law in Norwich, and continued 
in it, during his remaining years. His services were eagerly 
sought for in intricate and important cases, and his later 
efforts as an advocate, were among the ablest and most 
brilliant of his life. It was the universal testimony of his 
legal associates, that never had he exhibited more strikingly 
that keen analysis of causes, which always distinguished 
him as a lawyer, and never did he appeal with more com- 
manding influence, to the jury. On many occasions his 
services were given gratuitously to necessitous clients, 
whose claims appealed to his sense of justice. One of 
these causes, at least, in which he won a brilliant victory 
over a formidable array of counsel, will not soon be lost 
from the reminiscences of the New London County bar. 
From the first to the last of his legal career he was an en- 
thusiastic lover of his profession. At the time of his 
second election to the Senate, in i860, he writes to a 
friend, " I am glad to be re-elected. As I was a candidate, 
it would have been unpleasant to be beaten. . . . The 
position is a pleasant one, certainly, quite the most so of 
any in our government. Yet, for myself, I confess I 
prize professional honors — those of my own profession — 
more than any political distinction. Professional honors 
are not won without deserving them. Political preferment 
may be gained without merit, and lost without crime." 

In July, 1869, Mr. Foster had been tendered an election 
to the Kent Professorship of Law in Yale College. After 
holding it under advisement for some months, as solicited, 
he declined it, mainly on account of his attachments to 
Norwich, as a home and place of residence. After his 
retirement from the supreme bench, however, he became 



70 

a special lecturer In the law school of the university, on 
" Parliamentary Law and Methods of Legislation." His 
first course of lectures was delivered in November, 1877, 
and the last in June, 1880. On the occasion of the anni- 
versary exercises of the school, on the 25th of June, 1879, 
he gave a most instructive and valuable address on "The 
Legal Profession the Great Advocate and Supporter of 
Human Freedom." In this address he thus effectively 
treated one of the most perplexing ethical questions con- 
nected with the practice of law. 

"The course pursued by advocates in defending individuals 
charged with crime has been severely put to question. Cases are 
by no means rare in practice where a man's professional duty seems 
to come in conflict with his duty as a citizen. This conflict can 
be but a seeming one, for surely duties never clash. A man by 
becoming a lawyer is not absolved from the due performance of all, 
nor of any, of the duties which are devolved upon him as a man 
and a citizen. These are of paramount obligation ; and if he 
cannot discharge the obligation and be a lawyer, he must cease 
to be a lawyer. 

" Take a case of every-day occurrence. A man is brought 
before a court, and charged with crime. He is asked if he wishes 
for counsel, and he replies that he does. Our law charitably and 
properly supposes him innocent till the contrary appears, and 
counsel is assigned him. He then confers with his counsel, asserts 
his entire innocence, wishes to enter his plea of not guilty, and 
take his trial. 

" Now, suppose the advocate, knowing nothing whatever of the 
man or of the real facts of the case but what is gathered from the 
appearance and manner of the man himself, forms an unfavorable 
opinion: he strongly suspects, perhaps believes, the man to be 
guilty, in spite of his protestations to the contrary. Shall the 
advocate therefore refuse to aid him in his defence .-• 

"The most rigid moralist would, I think, hardly justify such a 



71 

course ; for the result manifestly would be, that the accused, if tried 
at all, must be tried without counsel, and that because his counsel 
had become satisfied of his guilt. In all doubtful cases, that cir- 
cumstance would be conclusive, and conviction would be inevitable; 
and the mischief of all this would be, that a man would be con- 
victed, not by the judgment of his peers and the law of the land, 
but by the mere suspicion, or by the belief, without a word of 
proper evidence, of the lawyer assigned to defend him. Tlie great 
wrong of this need not be argued. It is not assuming more than 
must be readily granted, that, in such a case the advocate should go 
on and defend the man whose defence had been assigned to him, 

" The trial then proceeds. The witnesses come forward and 
give their testimony. One link after another in the chain, which 
always connects the crime with the criminal, is supplied ; and the 
advocate feels satisfied that the accused is guilty. What is now 
his duty .'' Shall he abandon the cause, and leave the accused to 
his fate .'' 

" No, he must not ; nor does he violate any duty which he, as a 
man, owes to society in continuing to aid in the defence of an 
individual after satisfactory evidence of criminality has been ad- 
duced against him. But do you not thus make it the business of a 
lawyer to screen the guilty from punishment .'' By no means. 
However guilty a man may be, he is still entitled to a full and 
fair trial, under the law ; and a trial can be neither full nor fair if 
counsel, at any stage, when personally satisfied of the guilt of the 
accused, may throw up the defence. 

"There is among many people a clear misconception of the 
theory of an advocate's duty in criminal trials. It seems to be 
supposed, that, if engaged for the accused, he must, if he can, get 
him clear, guilty or not guilty. There can be no more egregious 
error. It is the province and duty of the advocate to interpose all 
legal defences for the benefit and protection of his client, and to 
see to it that no grounds are taken against him, but such as are 
warranted by law. This being done, whether the accused be 
acquitted or convicted, the duty of the advocate is done. 

" Suppose that while a trial is in progress the accused admits 



72 

his guilt to his counsel, but still insists on having the trial proceed, 
and on having a defence made, what shall the counsel do ? The 
situation is most painful, certainly, especially if the life of the 
accused be involved. The trial of Courvoissier, who was convicted 
of the murder of Lord William Russell, not many years ago, in 
England, was an instance of this kind. The trial had been in 
progress several days, the prisoner asserting his innocence, when 
he suddenly took his counsel aside, and told them that he was 
guilty. Mr. Charles Phillips, one of his counsel, then said to him 
that he doubtless wished to change his plea, and plead guilty ; but 
he replied, no, and insisted that the trial should go on, and that 
every ground of defence should be pressed to the utmost. The 
subsequent conduct of Mr. Phillips in the argument of the cause 
was very severely criticised at the time, and was afterward very 
fully discussed in the law periodicals. So far as Mr. Phillips 
endeavored to criminate others, or to excite suspicions against 
others, whom he knew to be innocent, though his design was 
merely to save his client's life, his course was more than unjusti- 
fiable, it was criminal ; and he would deserve the severest condem- 
nation. So far as he endeavored to secure to his client a fair trial 
merely, he was to be justified ; for to do that he had not only a right, 
but it was his duty." 



His interest was warmly enlisted in the prosperity of the 
school, and in his last will and testament he left an ample 
provision for the ultimate endowment of a professorship of 
English common law. His connection with educational 
interests was not limited to the law school. Though 
absorbed by the cares and occupations of public life, he 
always found time and thought to devote to institutions of 
learning. He was a trustee of the Norwich Free Academy, 
of which he was one of the original founders, and to which 
he bequeathed his fine residence and grounds in Norwich, 
subject to the life tenure of his widow. He also bequeathed 



11 

funds for the foundation of a scholarship at Brown Uni- 
versity, 

During his later life, Mr. Foster, aside from his profes- 
sional occupation, was actively engaged in many matters of 
public interest. During the years 1878 and 1879 he served 
with honor as a member of the commission, on the part 
of Connecticut, to settle the disputed boundary question 
between that State and New York. Subsequently, this 
disagreement being adjusted, he was appointed by Gov. 
Andrews one of three commissioners to negotiate with the 
State of New York for the purchase of Fisher's Island. 
He was also one of the commissioners appointed in 1878 
to inquire in the feasibility of simplifying the system of 
legal procedure ; and the rules and forms adopted by them 
were approved by the judges, and have become the prac- 
tice of the Connecticut courts. He was a member of the 
International Code Conference of America, — a volunteer 
association, co-operating with similar associations of emi- 
nent jurists in other countries, — and was a participant in 
its efforts to promote the codification of the laws of nations, 
in order to substitute for war a peaceful method of settling 
international disputes. He was an interested member, and 
one of the officers, of the Social Science Association. He 
was the president of the New London County Historical 
Society from the time of its organization until his death ; 
was a constant attendant of its meetings, and took a deep 
interest in all that pertained to its operations. He was an 
honorary member of the Cobden Club of London ; and 
although he never publicly abandoned his well known 
opinion of the necessity of the protective tariff system to 
American prosperity, he in his later years inclined to be- 
lieve that the period of this necessity was passing away. 



74 

He bore an Important part in many of the religious 
activities of the day, and was a valued counsellor in some 
of the chief religious organizations. He was one of the 
vice-presidents of the Congregational Union, and of the 
American Bible Society. It was announced in the religious 
press, after his death, that, but for that sad event, he was 
about to be elected to the presidency of the last-named 
society. In 1879 he was appointed a delegate of the evan- 
gelical alliance of the United States to the general confer- 
ence of that body at Basle, Switzerland. His services as 
presiding officer at religious conventions were eagerly 
sought ; and his addresses on such occasions were marked 
by simple practicality, and an earnest sympathy in the well- 
being of his fellow-men. He was president of the Con- 
necticut Congregational Club, an organization formed in 
1877 for the purpose of promoting acquaintance and co- 
operation for Christian purposes between the Congrega- 
tionalists, lay and ministerial, of the State. He was ap- 
pointed in 1879 a member of a committee which was 
constituted by the Congregational General Association of 
Connecticut, for the purpose of seeking a reform in the 
statutes of the State relating to divorce. The committee 
consisted of three clergymen and two laymen. It held a 
meeting for organization ; and to Mr. Foster, with Mr. 
Baldwin of New Haven, was committed the subject of 
" Divorce Proceedings." Soon after this Mr. Foster went 
South, and did not meet agfain with the committee. The 
loss of his valuable aid was deeply regretted. His opinions 
in opposition to the laxity of the existing laws and practice 
were well known. As a judge he was noted for his up- 
rightness and justice in divorce cases, where his influence 
was wholesome, and where he was thoroughly feared by 
unscrupulous attorneys. 



75 

During the years between 1870 and 1880 his name was 
often before the public in connection with the filling of 
important vacancies in the public service, the last promi- 
nent sueeestion havinor relation to the vacant English 
mission in 1879, for which his knowledge of international 
law and diplomatic usage, added to his eminent intellectual 
and social qualities, made him peculiarly fitted. None of 
these suggestions, however, were of his own prompting. 
Though never guilty of avoiding a public responsibility, he 
never sought one; and his last years were passed in a 
serene contentment with the inconspicuous duties of private 

life. 

His last appearance on a public occasion was at the 
ninety-ninth anniversary of the batde of Groton Heights, 
opposite New London. Here, on the 6th of September, 
1880, on the site of old Fort Griswold, he delivered the 
last of a long series of public addresses, — an oration burn- 
ing with that intense love of his native land which charac- 
terized him from the days when he sat upon his father's 
knee, listening to the old Revolutionary tales. 



The closing years of Mr. Foster's long and useful life 
were mostly spent in his beautiful home at Norwich. 
During the winter months indeed, for the enjoyment of a 
milder climate and a larger social life, it was his wont (with 
Mrs. Foster) to go South, staying some weeks usually, en 
route, in New York. His last winter was partly passed in 



76 

Bermuda, and, had he Hved a few months longer, he was 
designing to visit CaHfornia. His physical and mental 
vigor continued unimpaired. To all outward appearance 
he was a younger and fresher man at seventy-three, than 
most of his contemporaries at sixty. His home being a 
mile from the business centre of the city, it was his habit, 
in all weathers, to walk back and forth, often several times 
a day. His studious habits were maintained, his interest 
in all public affairs was unabated, his zeal in keeping 
abreast of the current of thought and opinion in the 
scientific, literary, and other fields of research was 
unquenched ; his flow of spirits and genial wit, still 
undiminished, made him more than ever the charm of the 
refined social circle. 

The passing years had only mellowed his character, and 
softened that stern dignity which, by one unacquainted 
with him, might sometimes have been mistaken for auster- 
ity. His life-record had borne the test of contemporary 
judgment ; old political hostilities were forgotten ; the 
purity of his aims and the integrity of his conduct had 
disarmed all enmities on the part of those with whom his 
life was brought in contact. His active form passed up 
and down the streets of his native city, followed by the 
honoring glances of his towns-people, and by the benedic- 
tions and prayers of many humble souls. Few might so 
fitly be pointed out to the young as the exemplar of what 
was worthy of their emulation, as this Connecticut states- 
man in his declining years. 

Suddenly he was called to depart. On Sunday, the 12th 
of September, 1880, he was present at church as usual, 
and attended to his customary religious duties. On Mon- 
day he was taken ill with a light malarial fever, which gave 



n 

his wife and physician little anxiety until Friday afternoon, 
when a congestive chill suddenly seized him, which was 
the work of Death. He became instantly delirious, and 
afterward relapsed into unconsciousness from which he 
never rallied, but, on the succeeding Sunday morning, the 
19th of September, 1880, he painlessly and peacefully 
passed away. 



Mr. Foster's character and abilities were conspicuously 
revealed during his long course of public service, yet his 
finer qualities were in a measure hidden except to those 
who knew him intimately. His aims in life were lofty and 
pure, and, while he was ambitious of success, he scorned to 
seek it by unworthy means. At the time of his first visit 
to Washington, shortly after his admission to the bar, he 
was ascending the steps of the Capitol when the thought 
came to him, " Shall I ever occupy a seat within these 
walls ? " His ambition was fired by the suggestion ; and he 
said to himself that he would at least strive to qualify him- 
self for a position in the Senate, and, if he did not succeed 
in gaining it, he would hope to have merited it. This inci- 
dent he related later in life to a friend who congratulated 
him upon his first election as United States Senator. 
Though in his earlier life active in politics, he was never a 
politician, in the professional sense of the term. He was 
indeed sometimes almost too negligent of the more ordi- 
nary and trivial methods of gaining popular favor. He 



78 

was a believer in political parties, and was scrupulous 
about party usages. His training as a lawyer and parlia- 
mentarian made him deferential to precedents. He was, 
however, more independent of party opinion than of party 
usage. He often drew upon himself the criticisms of 
members of his party for his conscientious differences from 
the popular sentiment. Yet he used to remark that his 
record in votes, and in fidelity to party traditions and 
practices, was far more perfect than that of some of his 
colleagues to whom his critics were wont to point as 
examples. He was characteristically cautious in his action 
upon public measures, especially those of doubtful utility, 
or involving an untried policy. This caution, combined 
with his courteous deference to the opinions and interests 
of others, was sometimes mistaken for timidity. Those 
who knew him well did not require a vindication from this 
charge ; while for those who did not, there is in the long 
record of his public speeches and acts, a sufficient evidence 
of his steadfast moral courage. 

He was a ready debater and an acute logician. He 
relished the excitement of reasonable debate, most keenly. 
The following extract from a letter written by him after the 
close of an exciting trial, at the time when he was coming 
into prominence as a member of the bar, well illustrates 
his fondness for forensic contests : " How exhausting," he 
writes, " and yet how thrilling, how ennobling, is a fierce 
intellectual struggle with generous antagonists ! Nothing 
so certainly and so speedily wrinkles the brow, and showers 
the snow-flakes upon the head, — nothing so drinks up 
what Madame de Stael so felicitously calls ' the sap of 
life,' — as violent mental effort. And yet I love it. Dearly 
do I love the excitement produced by the collision of intel- 



79 

lect with intellect. The onset, the strife, the doubt, the 
hope, the triumph of victory, — I love them all as well as 
Julius Caesar loved war." His speeches in the Senate 
were often far from ornate ; yet his remarks on measures in 
which he was deeply interested, and to which he had given 
much thought, abound in eloquent passages. He was apt 
at quotation ; but, except the citation of authorities in sup- 
port of an argument, he rarely used the gift in debate. 
His speeches were calm and dispassionate, and were often 
models of logical arrangement and analysis. His discrimi- 
nations were nice. A favorite form of attack was to place 
his antagonist in the predicament which, as he reasoned, 
he would be brought into by his own argument, and then 
make the absurdity of it apparent, — a form of the reductio 
ad absurduin. 

His keen sense of humor sometimes found expression 
in irony, uttered with such profound gravity as to com- 
pletely deceive the listener. A good illustration of it is 
found in his speech on the Lecompton Constitution, deliv- 
ered in the Senate on the 8th of March, 1858. Mr. Foster 
quoted from the proposed constitution the phrase " Free 
negroes shall not be permitted to live in the State under 
any circumstances," and proceeded with the utmost seri- 
ousness to comment upon the barbarity of a constitutional 
provision for offering free negroes in sacrifice. There was 
no power in the Constitution, he argued, to put them out 
of the State ; the laws of adjacent States prohibited their 
entrance therein ; by the proposed constitution of Kansas 
they could not " live " within her boundaries, — therefore 
nothing was left but to kill them. Some of the opposing 
senators fell into the trap, and seriously and elaborately 
denied that any state constitution authorized free negroes 
to be put to death. 



8o 

His candor in giving the arguments of his opponents 
full force, won him the universal respect of his colleagues. 
On one occasion, in debate in the Senate, an eminent 
antagonist on the Democratic side paid him the marked 
compliment of saying, " I know there is no person within 
these walls, who, I think, would be more frank in the state- 
ment of the position occupied by one with whom he does 
not agree, than the Senator from Connecticut." 

Mr. Foster's speeches were always the utterance of pro- 
found and earnest conviction. They came from a warm, 
tender heart, as well as from the head ; which fact imparted 
wonderful dignity and fascination to his delivery. These 
were enhanced by his almost entire freedom from manu- 
script or notes. So carefully matured was his thought, so 
clear his mental vision, and so strong his grasp of a sub- 
ject, that no interruptions, however artful or sudden, could 
ruffle his temper, or divert him from his main argument, 
although he sometimes indulged in repartee, the swiftness 
and keenness of which exposed his interlocutor to utter 
ridicule, and made him feared by his best equipped antago- 
nists in the Senate. 

His intimacy with President Lincoln made him to a cer- 
tain extent a spokesman for the administration. On this 
account his remarks on important measures of public 
policy were received with deference ; and his thorough 
information in respect to matters of fact in possession of 
the executive often threw light upon important questions 
before the Senate. 

On points of parliamentary precedent or senatorial usage, 
his utterances, even when not occupying the chair, were 
usually deferred to, as authoritative. His memory on such 
points was wonderfully tenacious, as evinced on one or two 



8i 

occasions, when senators who disputed him thought they 
spoke from the record. His manner was dignified, deliber- 
ate, emphatic, and persuasive. He was always listened to 
by his colleagues with marked attention and respect ; for 
his speeches were practical, and addressed rather to the 
judgment of the Senate than to the emotions of the people. 

Mr. Foster despised trickery and pretence, and was not 
always careful to aVoid offending those who practised them. 
Persons who sought his aid in attaining mere selfish or 
personal ends were often received with coldness, if not 
repulsed. Moreover, it sometimes appeared as if some of 
his early diffidence clung to him through all his years of 
public life. This was especially manifest in his dealings 
with those who only knew him slightly. Constituents who 
sought his assistance at Washington sometimes felt, after 
an interview, that they had made no definite progress with 
him in furthering their affairs. On the other hand, Mr. 
Foster found himself embarrassed to know precisely what 
they desired of him. An explanatory word from some 
mutual friend quickly cleared up the obscurity ; and the 
visitor would depart from Washington with the conviction 
that the reserved senator was, after all, a most whole-souled 
and helpful man. He did not, indeed, readily reveal to 
strangers that personal magnetism which so endeared him 
to his chosen friends. He was slow to manifest the famili- 
arity of confidence, but, when that was attained, he could 
not do too much for those who shared it. 

Other people estimated Mr. Foster's talents more highly 
than he did himself. He was free from conceit. He had 
not a spark of vanity. While he never pretended to be 
what he was not, he often made no pretence of being what 
he really was. He was, in fact, a man of rare mental 



82 

power, and of extensive literary acquirement. His whole 
life was one of assiduous study. His love of science was 
marked. Professor Henry said of him, that, were he' not 
so accomplished and useful as a statesman, he should feel 
that he had mistaken his vocation, in not devoting himself 
to scientific researches. He was profoundly versed in his- 
tory, for which he had a passion. He was familiar with 
the choicest morsels of English and classical literature. 
There was, however, no display of erudition in his public 
addresses, or in his ordinary conversation. The revealing 
of his literary treasures, was reserved for more intimate 
occasions. His recitations of long and beautiful passages, 
both in prose and poetry, with which his wonderful memory 
was stored, will always remain among his friends' most 
charming recollections of him. While spicy and witty in 
conversation and debate, quick to detect and to assail the 
vulnerable points in his opponents' arguments, he was 
often reticent of his own opinions, and not forward in de- 
fending them. Nor was he over prompt to vindicate his 
motives, preferring often to suffer the sting of misrepre- 
sentation, rather than parade his sacred convictions. 

The purity of his public life, and the integrity of his 
character, were never impeached or questioned. Political 
foes, united with political friends, in giving testimony to his 
worth in these respects. If he ever betrayed a marked 
asperity of demeanor, it was in collision with men whose 
aims and motives were corrupt or low. Ordinary self- 
seeking he met with coldness ; but base and mercenary 
policy he looked upon with contempt. 

In his social life, he was a rare companion. His flow of 
genial and witty conversation, made him a favorite in the 
most cultivated circles. His refined tastes, his chivalrous 



83 

regard for woman, his stores of literary lore, his acute 
observation of persons and things, furnished to the guests 
in his own hospitable home, or to those who elsewhere 
enjoyed his intimacy, an intellectual feast not often ex- 
celled. The following glowing, but well deserved, tribute 
to Mr. Foster's personal and social qualities, is from the 
pen of one whose knowledge and appreciation of cultivated 
society qualify her to testify : — 

" It seems impossible, in the memory of that modesty which 
never was at fault, to say all that one would like to say of Judge 
Foster. It seems almost as if that small delicate hand would be 
raised in deprecation, that the old familiar gleeful laugh would 
come, and that some bright speech would drop from his lips to 
turn our compliment to jest. ' We catiiiot make him dead !' 

"Judge Foster had no pretension, he was too great for that; 
he almost erred on the other side, and disliked compliment. If he 
ever referred to himself, it was to make gentle fun of those who, 
feeling how superior he was, would sometimes fain flatter him. 

" He belonged to those days when men aspired to be agreeable, 
well read, good talkers, and wits. And nature had made him a 
wit. He and the Hon. George T. Davis of Greenfield used to 
divide New England between them, as the sayers of good things, 
Mr. Foster's wit being, perhaps, the keener of the two. 

" He had not only wit but humor. His heart overflowed with 
tenderness and pity and love ; and George Eliot's exquisite defini- 
tion of humor, * to feel sad, but to talk gayly about it,' was a 
perfect description of his delightfully tender humor. At times Mr. 
Foster's conversation was poetical ; it was lofty, refined, learned, 
always varied and instructive. He had all the strange mixture of 
smartness, thrift, prudence, excellent common sense, keen satire, 
and perfect insight into character, which belongs to the true New 
Englander, but he had also a Grecian, a classic elegance in his 
intellect. He loved the beautiful in every thing. There was 
nothing in music, sculpture, painting, or nature too fine for his 



84 

high recognition. His was a rounded nature. He was a full-grown, 
gifted man, with every faculty at its best development. If the word 
' delightful ' had never been invented, it would have been coined to 
express Mr. Foster. His cordiality, his beaming and ready greet- 
ing, his love for his friends, his perfect sympathy, his determina- 
tion to be agreeable under any circumstances, the wit which flowed 
from his lips perpetually, as a fountain springs into the air, — all, 
all, as healthful, as cleanly, and as pure as the fountain, the waters 
of which sweeten the air, and catch a thousand rainbows from the 
sun ; his remarkable powers of conversation, seizing the inspira- 
tion of the moment, tossing back the ball of talk full of repartee ; 
excellent at a quotation ; and above and beyond all this, a charm 
which cannot be described, so wholly his own, that the people who 
loved him best and knew him best feel inadequate to express 
him, — such was our lost friend. This fine-tempered man, during 
his long life at Washington, so full of honor as it was, was the 
idol of society. No man, perhaps, was so sought for as a social 
inspiration. 

"'To put Mr. Foster between two dull people makes them both 
gay,' said a lady who greatly admired him. It was difficult to 
believe, in seeing Mr. Foster, so shy and shrinking was he of any 
pre'tence, that this was the dignified statesman, the Vice-President, 
the lawyer of name and fame, and the much-courted and witty 
personage of society. He seemed rather to be hanging on the 
lips of the person speaking to him, and he put every one at his 
ease. 

" He liked society, and would go to a dinner and two or three 
parties of an evening, if a lady desired to take him ! And what 
an attendant was he on such occasions ! The truest gentleman, 
respecting and admiring and reverencing women ; so full of tact, 
so full of grace, so humble, yet so gay, so good, and so witty, and 
so much amused; these were golden opportunities of meeting a 
man, of whom the grand old name of ' gentleman ' was the fitting- 
est title ! 

" Mr. Foster may be counted as among those who had tasted of 
all life's best blessings, and but few of its griefs and sorrows. And 



85 

how he gave out love, sympathy, and friendship, those whom he 

honored with his friendship only know. He had more friends than 

any other man, almost ; and he deserved them. Not only honor but 

love, not only love but confidence, not only confidence but intense 

respect, these were the feelings inspired by him whom we shall 

always mourn, the Hon. Lafayette S. Foster." 

M. E. W. S. 

Though naturally grave and serious in aspect, his enjoy- 
ment of a hearty laugh was something unique, and 
magnetic in its effects upon those who beheld it. His 
merriment seemed to begin inwardly, first revealing itself 
by droll twitchings of the mouth and twinklings of the 
eyes, and ending by convulsive shakings which were 
speedily shared by all present. His humor was quaint, 
and his wit often caustic ; but his frolicsome moods were 
almost infantile in their freshness and abandon. His 
genuine appreciation of fun betrayed Itself not only In the 
trivial matters of dally life, but often on more formal and 
decorous occasions. The dry debates of the Senate were 
frequently enlivened by his quip and repartee. 

The recollection of Mr. Foster's wit and humor, both 
serious and merry, Is still fresh in the minds of all his 
friends. Yet It would be vain to attempt to record these 
flashes, which sprang from the suggestions of the moment. 
The fine flavor of sparkling conversation, or of repartee, 
like the bouquet of old wine, vanishes with the occasions 
enlivened by them. Not only was he a good talker, but a 
good listener as well, and had the happy faculty of putting 
those he conversed with on good terms with themselves. 

These genial qualities of the departed senator were but 
one form of expression of that exquisite sensibility of 
character, which was manifested also in the tenderness 



86 

of his affections. His was a sensitive nature. He was 
uncommonly acute in his social sensibilities. He was so 
prostrated by the death of his last child that a trip to 
Europe was found necessary to rouse him, by change of 
scene, from his profound depression. During his whole 
life he observed the birthdays of his three little ones who 
died in their early childhood. Some of his letters, written 
even in his latest years, contain most touching allusions to 
these bereavements. 

Among the tributes to his memory which were published 
after Mr. Foster's death was the following, from one of his 
associates at the bar, which exemplifies the tenderness of 
his social nature : — 

"Editor of the Bulletin, — Will you please allow me a few 
words of respect and love to the memory of the late Lafayette S. 
Foster ? 

"Much has been said of him as a learned judge, an illustrious 
statesman, and an eloquent advocate ; but I desire to relate an 
incident, if such it may be called, shov^ing the man in the tender 
and social relations of hfe, and in which he seemed almost to fore- 
cast the near future when he should go hence, recalling so tenderly 
sad memories of the past. 

" I had occasion, in the month of October last, to correspond 
with him. In the closing paragraph of one of his letters he said, 
' Your sun is high in the meridian, while mine is far in the west. 
Happily, no dark clouds border the horizon.' The letter was so 
beautiful, that, upon reading it to my wife, she said, ' Keep that 
letter to read by and by to the little boys.' I wrote to Mr, Foster 
that we should carefully preserve his letter for the purpose named, 
and soon received this reply, with the lines of poetry : — 

" ' I did not suppose that there was any thing in my last letter 

to you that would be of any interest to Mrs. . She seems, 

however, to have the invaluable faculty of extracting something 



87 

good out of every thing, for the benefit of her dear boys, — hers 
and yours. She manifestly feels toward them as Cornelia, the 
mother of the Gracchi, felt toward hers. The companion lady 
asked to see her jewels, having first shown her own. Cornelia 
showed her sons. 

"'These dear boys of yours will, I hope, prove jewels in a 
higher and better than any earthly sense. Once I, too, had objects 
of the fondest and tenderest affection, — three loved and darling 
ones. It is just thirty-eight years ago this very day since my first- 
born — a bright, beautiful boy, none more so ever gladdened a par- 
ent's heart — faded away, at the close of his second summer. His 
two sisters, no less attractive, the oldest less than four years old, 
now lie side by side with him on the banks of the Yantic, almost 
in sight of my windows. 

" ' " But, by faith, I see the shining 
Of the crowns of peace entwining 
Spirit-brows, all white and pearly, 
Of the loved who left us early, 
Seeking rest." ' 

" Doubtless what he saw by faith has ended in the fruition of 
victory, and ere this he has imprinted a father's kiss upon those 
* darling ones ' who left him early, ' seeking rest.' 

" The last time I met him was a few days before receiving the 
letter, when, in company with another friend, we spent a good part 
of a pleasant afternoon in a drive to Roseland Park, and over the 
beautiful hills of Woodstock. He was very happy that afternoon. 
I shall never forget the charm of his conversation, so full of instruc- 
tion, good sense, good humor, and sparkling with wit. And, as he 
repeated the whole of 'Alnwick Castle,' by Fitz-Greene Halleck, 
I listened with a pleasure never to be forgotten. My friend and I 
have recalled the occasion many times since. 

" ' He was a scholar, and a ripe and good one ; 
Exceeding wise, fair-spoken, and persuading ; 
Lofty, sometimes sour, to them that loved him not ; 
But, to those who sought and loved him, sweet as summer.' 



88 

" Death has unloosed his royal spirit from the captivity of earth» 
and has opened to it the gate of a higher and nobler fame than any 
he enjoyed on earth." 

G. W. PHILLIPS. 

At the time when he was urged to accept the Kent Pro- 
fessorship at the Yale Law School, which would involve a 
removal to New Haven, Mr. Foster remarked, " How could 
I ever leave the graves of those children, and their mother? 
If it were the desert of Sahara, I would never pitch my tent 
elsewhere. It would kill me, to tear up my roots here." 
Yet he never intruded his sorrows upon his friends, but 
bore them, ordinarily, in silence, and with Christian forti- 
tude. Few strangers who beheld his grave and impassive 
demeanor would suspect, what a depth of exquisite tender- 
ness was hidden beneath it. This temperament displayed 
itself in thoughtful kindnesses to others, which were al- 
ways as unobtrusive as they were delicate. But it is not 
needful to dwell upon his many kind and gentle deeds. 
Wherever he lived, the memory of them is written upon 
thankful hearts. 

" When the eye saw him, it blessed him ; and when the 
ear heard him, it took knowledge of him." 

A few extracts from a chapter of simple reminiscences, 
written by one of Mr. Foster's life-long friends, may appro- 
priately find a place here : — 

..." Let me name one trait that tended to make him so great 
a favorite in home and social life, and that was his never intruding 
the perplexities and burdens of professional and public life among 
those who could neither share nor relieve them. In the long and 
close acquaintance of many years I cannot recall a single instance 
in which his business cares were intruded upon his friends. . . . 



89 

"To all who knew him, even casually, his quick repartee and 
humorous perception of things was most apparent. And yet his 
wit, though pointed, was never bitter. His gift in conversation was 
unchallenged, yet he was as truthful as he was humorous. He was 
playfully accused one day that in telling a story he had ^stretched 
it.' ' I did it on purpose, my dear friend. I never mean that a 
story shall pass through my hands like clipped coin. I always 
mean to give a little better than I receive,' he returned with a merry 
laugh, that told the point. Being invited to take tea with a family 
of relatives, with his wife, she went early and alone, with apologies 
for Mr. Foster's absence. With her constant thoughtfulness she 
feared the table would be too crowded. Just as the social meal had 
commenced, Mr. Foster's welcome arrival was announced. Mrs. 
Foster, looking up, with a tone of mild reproach, said, ' My dear, I 
told you not to come till after tea.' — 'And that is just what I have 
come after,' was the response, as amid the applause of all a seat 
was found for him in the circle of which he was the life and de- 
light. And his repartees seemed so natural one wondered they 
had not occurred to himself. One cold, raw day some one said 
'The wind was searching.' — ' I would not mind its being search- 
ing, if it was x\Q\. finding^, he replied with a shiver. 

" Speaking one day to a friend in Hartford of the eccentric 
behavior of a common acquaintance, it was said, ' We should call 
such a one deranged here, and put him in the Retreat.' — 'Oh! 
we have no such institution, and cannot afford to have our standard 
of sanity so high as you have in Hartford,' he quickly replied. 

..." How shall I speak of the times when the lives of his 
little children filled his heart with the tenderest affection, even 
when every hour was crowded with business cares } Three beauti- 
ful children were born to him, but each little life closed before 
another took its place ; so that three times the parents were left 
childless. After the darling little Joanna and the noble boy, Alfred 
Standish, had lived to be loved and pass away, little Mary came 
to fill the sad vacancy. One present in church at the baptism of 
this beautiful child said it was almost painful to see how intently 
the father watched the darling, drawing the wrappings about the 



90 

little form, dreading lest any breath of summer air should visit her 
too roughly. Not long before she was taken from them a friend 
took a pencil likeness of the lovely infant, which was the only 
memorial of her beauty when she had passed away. The bereaved 
mother loved to recall in this the features of her child, but it 
caused Mr. Foster such convulsions of grief he could not look upon 
it. Yet this mourning was not unsubmissive, but tender and 
affectionate. He found the lonely mother one day so overwhelmed 
with sorrow, that, after speaking words of comfort in vain, he said, 
in tones she could never forget, 'I should think you had lost your 
God.' This implied reproach came home to her with great force, 
and stilled all thought of murmuring." 

S. D. H. 



The crowning grace of Mr. Foster's character was his 
profound, yet childlike, Christian faith. It illumined his 
inner life, tempered and sweetened his self-respect, inspired 
his courses of action, entered into his convictions upon 
public questions, prompted his secret and open charities, 
and breathed through his prayers and religious teachings. 
He became a member of the First Congregational Church 
of Norwich Town in 1832, and in 1836 united by letter with 
the Second Congregational Church at Norwich. He was 
a constant attendant at church, and, after the first few 
months of his membership, participated actively in its social 
meetings. His political interests and pursuits never seemed 
to quench his religious fervor. In 1872, at the formation 
of the Park Church in Norwich, he transferred his connec- 
tion thither, and, to the day of his death, was one of its 
most steadfast and devoted members. He also conducted 
a large Bible class in the Sunday school. In one of the let- 
ters received after his death the following reference occurs 
to this faithful labor : — 



91 

..." The death of Judge Foster has prompted me to offer my 
humble tribute of respect to his memory. If he is deserving of 
honor for his ability as a statesman, and for his incorruptibility as 
a judge, he is entitled to still greater respect for his fidelity in 
Christian duty. For nearly four years it was my privilege to be 
the superintendent of the Sunday sghool with which Judge Foster 
was connected as teacher of the Bible class. No teacher in the 
school was more punctual in attendance, or more conscientious in 
the performance of every duty. Ever ready to devote his talents 
to the various departments of Christian work, it was in the Sunday 
school that he exhibited his rare qualities of mind and heart to the 
best advantage. It was here that the simplicity of his Christian 
faith, the extent of his Biblical knowledge, and his broad Christian 
culture, were most conspicuous. The simple presence of such a 
man in the Sunday school was an inspiration to all associated with 
him. Honorable as was his position when presiding officer of the 
United States Senate, he was even more honored as a faithful 
Sunday school teacher. The work that he performed in this 
capacity will endure long after the other has passed from the 
memory of men. God hasten the day when more men like 
Lafayette S. Foster shall attain to their highest dignity by teach- 
ing God's Word in the Sunday schools of our land ! " . . . 

G. W. H. 

No sketch of Mr. Foster's life would be complete which 
did not touch upon the depth and sincerity of his reli- 
gious character. By nature he was possessed of a quick 
and fiery temper. One of his friends, to whom a simi- 
lar temperament, but uncontrolled, had proved a bane 
to his life, once asked Mr. Foster if he supposed he 
could ever overcome and rule his spirit. His reply was, 
" Certainly. I had a far more hasty and impetuous spirit 
than yourself in my youth, and even up to the time of 
my beginning the practice of the law. In my first case 
at court, I lost my temper, appeared to disadvantage in 



92 

the eyes of others, and wounded my self-respect. I said 
to myself then, that if I was to succeed in my profes- 
sion, that temper must be controlled ; and I made that 
conquest the first business of my life." In wonderful 
contrast to this tempestuous beginning were all the sub- 
sequent years of his life. He was remarkable for the 
meekness of his bearing, his unruffled composure under 
provocation, and his patience and sweetness in adver- 
sity. This beautiful self-discipline, which was the grand 
underlying secret of his quiet strength ; the unspotted 
integrity of his public and private life ; his broad hu- 
manity, sympathizing ever with the wants and sorrows of 
his fellow-men ; his solicitous interest in the welfare of all 
religious and philanthropic enterprises, all bear witness 
to the Christian faith and Christian principle that guided 
him. These evidences of faith give confidence to those 
who mourn him, that, when the unexpected summons called 
him from a ripe and vigorous mortality to cross the thresh- 
old of the unseen and eternal world, his soul was found 
in readiness. 

After his death, the book-mark of the pocket Testament 
which had been his familiar companion was found placed 
over these words : " For we know that if our earthly house 
of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of 
God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." 




From a Marble Bust executed by C. Calverley, 
New York, 1879. 



APPENDIX. 



I. 

THE LATE SENATOR FOSTER. 

OBSEQUIES OF THE FALLEN STATESMAN. — GREAT CONCOURSE OF FRIENDS. — 
IMPRESSIVE SERVICES. ELOQUENT ADDRESS BY DR. BACON. 

[From "The Norwich Bulletin" of Sept. 24, 1880.] 

The mortal remains of the late Senator Foster were consigned 
to the grave in Yantic Cemetery yesterday afternoon, after a prayer 
at his late residence in the presence of a few intimate friends, and 
public services at Park Congregational church. The latter were 
attended by a large concourse of people, many of them from out of 
town, and holding prominent social and official positions, beside 
relatives and connections of the family. 

The church was full to its utmost capacity, and the most promi- 
nent families of the city were represented in the throng. 

* * * The service consisted of two fervent and touching prayers, 
■ the reading of singularly apt selections from the Psalms in an im- 
pressive manner, an address of about ten minutes' length by the 
pastor, the Rev. Dr. Bacon, and some exquisitely rendered music by 
a quartet from the church choir. The latter included an anthem 
by Lyle, made up of verses from the 103d and 13th Psalms, begin- 
ning, " Like as a father pitieth his children," and Schubert's " Rock 
of Ages." As the congregation dispersed, Mr. Kies played Cho- 
pin's funeral march on the organ. The whole was in perfect keep- 
ing with the profound solemnity of the occasion. Dr. Bacon's 



94 

address, which we give herewith, was delivered with dignity and 
deep feeling, and produced a sensible impression. 

" God hath spoken once ; twice have I heard this ; that power be- 
longeth unto God. Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy.' 

" God hath spoken once, twice ; and we have heard his speech, and 
are afraid. He hath spoken in his holy Word, telling us how frail we are, 
bidding us to number our days, and apply our hearts unto wisdom ; and we 
have paid httle heed. And now, by the mouth of his solemn providence, 
he hath spoken a second time, with sharp and sudden utterance ; and we 
cannot refuse to hear, and we cannot mistake his meaning. 

" He has spoken to the strong man in the splendid vigor of his mature 
and venerable age; and his word is this, 'To God belongeth power.' He 
has summoned away the wise man, whose perspicacious mind, enriched 
with the study and experience of threescore years and ten, was beginning to 

'attain 
To something of prophetic strain ; ' 

and his lesson to our hearts is this : 'To God belongeth wisdom.' From 
the dwindling roll of those great statesmen whose public virtue, whose per- 
sistent hope that would never despair of the Republic, whose sagacious 
mind penetrating darkness and disentangling complexities, held the great 
places of the nation, and guided the country through her awful crisis while 
all the world looked on — has been stricken off another, and not the least 
illustrious name ; and the word that the event speaks to us is this, that 
God alone is great. We miss henceforth from our streets, our congrega- 
tions of worship, our charitable councils, our studies for the good of men 
and for the glory of God our Saviour, a righteous man, a living example of 
uprightness, a living rebuke to the base elements in public life, a childlike 
believer, a humble worshipper of God, called away from us to judgment and 
to the sweet realization of the divine forgiveness, in the promise of which 
he trusted. And the departure of such an one to be judged and to be 
forgiven, speaks to us of the sole, bright example of One who needeth no 
forgiveness ; and bids us lift up our hearts and sing, — 

' For Thou only art holy. 
Thou only art the Lord. 
Thou only, O Christ ! with the Holy Ghost, 
Art most high in the glory of God the Father ; ' 



95 

and the lesson which it teaches us is this, that ' with him is forgiveness, 
that he may be feared, and with him is plenteous redemption.' 

" And since God is speaking to us so plainly, our words may well be few. 
Thanks to the dear example of Him who wept beside the grave of Lazarus, 
it is not forbidden us at such a time to mourn while we give thanks, — to 
speak with tears of the good gift which we have lost, while we give praise 
to Him, the Giver, and say our farewell in Christian hope. 

" Farewell, great citizen, incorruptible senator, wise counsellor, eloquent 
advocate, righteous judge ! 

" Farewell, O faithful friend ! We give thanks at the remembrance of 
the words of counsel, the acts of kindness, the secret gifts of charity, 
which he thought were hidden, but the secret of which begins now to be 
unlocked by his death. 

" Farewell, dear fellow-disciple of the blessed Lord, fellow-worshipper 
with us in His house, fellow-guest with us at His table, fellow-laborer with us 
in His kingdom ! We give thee God-speed from thy labor to thy rest, from 
thy waiting and hoping to thy large reward, from these dim visions in 
which we see as through a glass darkly to where thou seest face to face, and 
knowest as thou art known. Farewell ! 

" And he shall fare well. To our parting words there comes back an 
echo from the word of God : ' Say ye to the righteous that it shall be well 
with him.' We who follow him wherein he followed Christ shall not be 
divided from him, but with him shall be ' ever with the Lord.' Comfort 
thyself, O desolate and widowed heart ! O brethren, friends, bereaved 
together in this great loss, comfort one another with these words ! " 

The bell, which so often had summoned Mr. Foster to public 
prayer, tolled as he came to and went from the church for the last 
time. A long train of carriages, and hundreds of those who afoot 
paid the homage of following the dead to its final resting-place, 
proceeded to the cemetery ; and it was noticeable that this com- 
pany of loyal friends included the poor and humble, as well as the 
rich and distinguished. Perhaps the former had better occasion 
to mourn. A brief recognition of the supremacy of divine power, 
and a committal of dust to dust, was followed by the singing of two 
verses of that beautiful hymn "Abide with Me," in a most affect- 
ing manner. After a benediction, the scattering of flowers by 
loving hands into the tomb, and a lingering farewell, the dead 



96 

was left to the autumn sunlight and the falling leaves, to the 
memories and love of those who knew him, and the peace of ever- 
lasting rest. 

Flags on Franklin Square, the city hall, the shipping, and else- 
where in the city yesterday were at half-mast, out of respect to the 
memory of Senator Foster. 



II. 

LAFAYETTE S. FOSTER. 
[From "The Norwich Star" of Sept. 20, 1880.] 

The news of the death of Lafayette S. Foster of this city falls 
upon the members of this community with almost the shock of a 
personal bereavement. Upon the members of this community, do 
we say ? Nay. The sorrow and profound regret that must accom- 
pany the mournful intelligence cannot be restricted by the narrow 
limits of a little township, neither boundaries of county, nor the 
yet wider lines of state. The removal of such a man — a leader 
in the vanguard of the intellectual, the Christian, enlightenment of 
his age — is no small affliction. It is a loss to the nation and to 
the world. 

It is an old truth — as old as the world, and reiterated in every 
passing moment — that the coming of death is always sudden and 
unexpected. But a few days ago Mr. Foster was apparently in the 
possession of his wonted health and strength. He was occupied 
with the performance of the duties of the present and with plans 
for the future. Notwithstanding he had passed that stage in life 
that is generally accepted as the end of the journey, his form was 
still unshaken, his activity undecreased, and his mental powers, far 
from being dimmed, seemed to be growing brighter in the glowing 
ripeness of the perfect autumn. It seemed so unnatural that a 
life that yet promised so abundantly, should be rudely smitten ; 
and so unforeseen had been the event, that, when the first vague 
rumor passed through the town, it was received with an emotion of 
painful incredulity that has not yet entirely vanished. 



97 

It is not our interrtion to attempt a review of the life of this man 
whose death we now mourn and deplore. His public life is famil- 
iar to us all ; for its history is inwoven with the history of his town, 
his state, and of the nation. Words, however tenderly inspired, 
are but vain and incompetent agents to bear tribute to grand and 
worthy deeds. Yet there is one lesson that was patiently wrought 
in the life of the man who is now dead, that it is the duty of every 
worker for the general weal to present, as well as he is able, to the 
earnest consideration of society. The lesson is this : That the 
life that has just closed illustrates, in a remarkable degree, how 
much grander and nobler is the character that is the outgrowth of 
substantial and durable talents, united with an incorruptible spirit, 
than the ephemeral brightness of superficial accomplishments, — 
tawdry veneering that catches and holds the popular fancy until 
the polish is tarnished, or its shallowness is exposed. Mr. Foster 
served his generation and his age efficiently, worthily. And, 
when he laid down the instruments of his labor forever, his hands 
were unsoiled by a dishonorable act. No one who knew and ap- 
preciated his great mental endowments, his sagacity, and the in- 
domitable resolution of his character, can doubt that his light 
might have shown more ostentatiously, though with less pure, less 
lofty and lasting flame, had he consented to sell his birthright for 
a mess of pottage, to degrade his manhood and corrupt his soul 
with the filthy attachments of partisan fealty. Intrenched in the 
integrity of his principles and animated by pure and sincere mo- 
tives, he acted according to his convictions in every emergency of 
life. He obeyed the dictates of his conscience rather than the dic- 
tates of party or policy ; preferring the steady and superior posi- 
tion conferred by fixed principles, rather than the dazzling but eva- 
nescent success of a selfish and pliable purpose. Because he did 
this, the lesson of his life is of inestimable value to all men, and 
especially to those whose life is yet before them. Because he did 
this, all men whose admiration is worth gaining shall bend in re- 
spectful, grateful homage to his memory. The lesson of such a 
life, like the fragrance of some rare perfumes, does not die away in 
a day, but lingers long after the body that gave it expression has 



98 

disappeared, growing even sweeter and more potent with the lapse 
of years. The life that teaches such a lesson is worth living. 



III. 

A TRIBUTE. 
[From " The Norwich Bulletin " of Sept. 24, 1880.] 

One who knew and revered Judge Foster sends us this commu- 
nication : — 

"Mr. Editor, — In asking the privilege of your columns to sup- 
plement what has been said of the late Lafayette S. Foster, I am 
conscious that it is impossible to pay him any thing like a just 
tribute. The virtues of such a noble life were too many, too rare, 
too subtle to be fully discerned by one person, or, indeed, to be 
discerned at all, except by the eye of sympathy ; and even then 
they were to be felt rather than to be described. Mr. Foster was 
many times animated with purposes too lofty to be understood by 
the great majority of other people ; and yet, though exquisitely 
sensitive to ignorant or malicious criticism, he seldom deigned to 
explanation or self-defence. Rather than degrade a worthy cause 
by adapting it to gross understandings, or withdraw the veil of 
modesty from a consciously and exceptionally worthy intent, he 
would silently endure the torture of misinterpretation or abuse. 
Such calm fortitude, for truth, for. conviction, was almost divine. 
Yet exhilarated with the purer atmosphere of the mountain tops, he 
often forgot his comparative isolation, and dreamed not how far 
away he was from his fellow mortals in the plains below ; nor could 
they catch an inkling of what he saw and felt on those heights 
of instinct and will. 

" Assiduous and varied industry was one of the most striking 
traits of Mr. Foster's character. This is best illustrated, perhaps, 
by the fact that without outside help he rose from the station of an 
humble country lad to eminence as a lawyer, judge, orator, and 



99 

statesman. But even richer fruit of his toil was found in the 
breadth of his culture, the wonderful stores of knowledge which 
he accumulated, and his persistent devotion, even when he no 
longer held office, and had reached the ripe age of threescore years 
and ten, to personal business, public affairs, and intellectual and 
social pursuits. No mere greed of gain, nor a wish for empty 
fame, impelled him to excellence in his profession, but zeal to 
know what other states and nations than his own had done in the 
science of government. Hence his profound interest in the move- 
ment for an international code, and his passion for ancient and 
modern, personal and political history. Refined and eager taste 
of course gave direction to this restless activity. He revelled in 
the choicest literature of his mother tongue, committing number- 
less passages of rare beauty, and often of great length, to memory. 
He kept close track of the discoveries of modern science, and the 
exploits of great men, the world over. And while natural gifts 
accounted in a great measure for the sparkle of his conversation, 
the wittiness of his anecdotes, the courtliness of his manners, the 
grace and pathos of his oratory, there can be no doubt that patient 
self-training added to the power and charm of his influence. 

" Mr. Foster had great breadth of mental vision. He was of a 
judicial cast of mind naturally. He never took partial and narrow 
views of things. This was true, not only of his admirable service 
on the bench, but of his career as a senator and as an individual ; 
and without doubt this trait had much to do with the reliance which 
Abraham Lincoln — noble, temperate, humane Lincoln — placed 
on him as a counsellor amid the perplexities and awful responsi- 
bilities of the war. Mr. Foster could not be partisan; neither 
could Mr. Lincoln. Mr. Foster resisted with great effect the 
spread of slavery as a cruelty and a denial of human rights ; in the 
days of reconstruction his separation from the more radical ele- 
ments of the party was due to a fear that the North might be cruel 
and unjust to the whites of the South. He feared lest the re-action 
from wrong in one direction be followed by wrong in the opposite. 
When he felt dissatisfaction with governmental abuses in Grant's 
administration, he only found fault with what had disgraced pre- 



lOO 

vious democratic regimes. He was consistent. He abated nothing 
of his devotion to the rights of man meantime, only he was not 
narrow minded. If, as regards the tariff question, he incUned to the 
views of Richard Cobden, it was because he included in his scope 
not merely one nation, but all nations of the world. Yet this 
breadth of view and this liberality of spirit never left him indeci- 
sive and vacillating, as it does men of less concentration of intellect 
and less energy ; but he was strong in his convictions, clear though 
resolute, and fearless amid criticism. Not merely in politics, but 
in religion, business, literary and social matters, he had a reason 
for the faith that was in him. 

" Mr. Foster's sagacity foresaw the war before most of his sena- 
torial confrtres, and he would have gone farther than some of them 
to avert that calamity ; but when that war was precipitated trea- 
sonably, he was for prosecuting the defence of the Union with 
unrelenting vigor, Mr. Foster's secret and public service between 
1855 and 1867 contributed much to the abolition of slavery and the 
preservation of the Union, His public usefulness did not stop 
here. Like Carl Schurz and George William Curtis, he has con- 
tributed much to the purification of civil government in this 
country. 

" What was of infinitely greater value than any other character- 
istic of Mr. Foster, was the depth of Christian principle which 
sprang from his religious faith, and pervaded his whole life. It 
underlay his gentlemanly bearing; it shone through his hospi- 
tality ; it inspired the generosity with which he spoke and thought 
of other men ; it dictated a thousand acts of secret but bounteous 
benevolence of which the world never knew ; it found expression 
in the assistance which he gave to religious enterprises ; it enno- 
bled his conceptions of the duties of his profession ; it imparted a 
royal dignity and singular righteousness to his judicial decisions ; 
it gave fire to his oratory ; it was the key to his patriotism and the 
mainspring of his statesmanship ; it fired his hate of insincerity ; 
it intensified his scorn for the trickery and truckling of mean men. 
It did not merely adorn a useful life ; it gave potency to his whole 
career. 



lOI 



" Such hard-working, large-minded, high-souled men are impor- 
tant factors in our civihzation ; they leave permanent impress upon 
the character of those about them, and upon the civic and other 
institutions of the country ; and they stimulate others to nobler and 
more efficient lives. So that while those who knew him and loved 
him will feel keenly the loss of companionship and helpful inspira- 
tion, and while faithful adherents of every cause with which he 
. was identified will mourn the cessation of his direct assistance, the 
age may well thank God that Lafayette S. Foster was spared to 
so rich a fruitage of actual service, and that his influence will not 
cease until the ripples of finite time break soft on eternity's shore." 

J. H. 



IV. 

THE LATE LAFAYETTE S. FOSTER. 

TESTIMONY OF THE BAR OF NEW LONDON COUNTY. 

At the session of the Superior Court, held at New London, in 
and for New London County, Tuesday, Sept. 28, 1880, Hon. John 
D. Park, Chief Justice, presiding, the following action was taken 
concerning the death of Judge Foster. 

At noon the Hon. Augustus Brandegee rose, and remarked that 
the hour had arrived when, by previous agreement, the bar of New 
London County were to take action appropriate to the death of 
Judge Foster, and listen to a eulogy prepared by the chairman 
of the association. Col. John T. Wait thereupon said, — 

"May it please your Honor,— At a meeting of the bar of New 
London County, held on the twenty-second day of the present 
month, at the court room in the city of Norwich, a committee was 
appointed to draft resolutions that would embody the sentiments 
of the members of the bar upon the removal by death of their dis- 
tinguished brother, — the Hon. Lafayette S. Foster. These resolu- 
tions, by the order of that body, will now be presented to the court 



102 

br tie Hon. Asgn^as Biandegee ; and I nespectfnllT request that 
ihe sime be esierod i^xsn its records, in perperaal testimony of the 
legard and afiecdm 'irhicii its membera entertain for tie memoiy 
of the deceased." 

TKZ JlESOLmOXS. 

At this point Mr. Brandegee rose, and read the foD owing pre- 
ambie and resoinnons : — 

~ Wnrrras. The Hon. Laisyeire S. J osier, a member of the New Loo- 
dor Coimrr bar and larrelr a judge of ibe Sigireme Comt of this Sate, has 
recenfrr been lonored by deaib ; and 

^ Whereas^ Tie members of this bar -wish to leave some record of their 
hki gJpredarion of his characier and wonh ; therefore, 

" £j:sDh>cd, That he was ^aeemed by us. as a lawver. honor2.rue and ime, 
nerer betraying a trust : as an advocaie, pre-eminenih" sDCcesfnl ; as a 
senarar. ever loyal to the govemmeni. clearrr discerning "whai was best 
adapted lo its mieresis. and feafiessiy ghdng his inflaence for their promo- 
■don ; as a jadge. dignified and tmcompromising in the defence of jusdce 
and die right : as a rTiizen. erer to be trusted for his integritv and benevo- 
lence : as a mend of imiveisal edacation. never relnctani to contrTDnte the 
wisdom of his counsels and his substance for is diffusion ; as a consistent 
representative of the Christiai! religion, and as a rare model of the virrnes 
r"na- riignTigni'^'r' a great and iro<od man. 

^ Efsoixd. Tiiai we moam the eilin cdon of such a "Hght in the nitvate 
and official reiadons of life. 

~ E£soh>ed, Thar tiie coart be regaested to order these resoladoiK to be 
entered upon is minat^ and triar the deii of the bar transmit a copj 
diereof to the femihr of the deceased, and mrms^ a like copy for pahihca- 
tion in the newspapers of tiiis coaniy." 

After the reading of tne resalntians Mr. Wait contintied as fol- 
lows : — 

Ai:>DilE55 OF ME- "WAIT. 

*■ Death "has again invaded the ranks of onr profession, and taken 

from as : ■ ' . - niunber, ■who. for manv years, has not only been 
the ackn: - ; - head of the bar in this count}-, but occupied a 

conspicnons position among the leading practitioners at the lar 

of this State. 



I03 

"The Hon. Lafayette S. Foster, our associate and our friend, 
has been suddenly struck down by a fatal disease, full of years 
indeed and crowned with honors, but still in the midst of his use- 
fulness, with his physical powers unshaken, and his intellect un- 
clouded. In this county, in which he was born and passed his 
entire life, except when temporarily absent in the discharge of 
public duties, where his character was best understood and his 
great abilities and many virtues most highly appreciated, his loss 
as a public man, a personal friend, and a professional brother, is 
painfully felt and deeply lamented. 

" I can but keenly feel the death of one who has not only been 
my cotemporary and companion in my career at the bar and in 
public life, but was my friend and associate before I completed the 
preparation necessary for the pursuit of my profession, and with 
whom, from the day on which we first met until the hour when he 
was removed by death, I maintained the most intimate and agree- 
able relations. * * * 

" When I first became acquainted with Mr. Foster, he was a 
student in the office of the Hon. Calvin Goddard in Nor%vich ; and 
I was pursuing studies preparatory to entering Washington, now 
Trinity College, at Hartford. The last few months in which I was 
so engaged, I recited in the classics to him, and enjoyed very great 
advantages in having him as my teacher ; for he had just graduated, 
as I have said, from Brown University, with the highest honors 
of that institution, and was a ripe scholar and admirable instructor. 
On my leaving college, I at once entered the law office of Mr. 
Foster, and remained with him as a student — with the exception 
of a short period during which I pursued the study of law with 
the Hon. Jabez W. Huntington — until such time as I was admit- 
ted to the bar. I allude to my personal relations with the deceased 
to show the excellent opportunities that I enjoyed to thoroughly 
know him, and which now enable me to bear pleasant testimony to 
his nice sense of honor, his unsullied private character, his rare in- 
tellectual endowments, and his many and varied accomplishments. 

" Ardent and aspiring, he had decided at an early age to pursue 
the profession of law. Animated by an honorable ambition, deter- 



I04 

mined to succeed in this controlling purpose, confident in his own 
ability to overcome all ordinary obstacles, from means principally 
obtained by teaching, supplemented by such pecuniary aid as a 
devoted mother could render, Mr. Foster qualified himself to enter 
and sustained himself through college, and acquired his profession. 
At the November term of the county court, 183 1, he was admitted 
to the bar of this county, and at once commenced to practise in 
the courts. The early friends of Mr. Foster will recollect that he 
attracted attention at that time as a young man of unusual prom- 
ise, and his future prominence as a jurist and advocate was then 
anticipated. At the time that he commenced practice, the bar of 
this county presented an array of gifted men who had already won 
distinction. Goddard, Strong, Child and Rockwell at Norwich, 
Law, Isham, Brainard, Perkins and the younger Cleveland at New 
London, Waite and McCurdy at Lyme, were the recognized 
leaders, and were formidable competitors of the young aspirant for 
professional honors. But, though the task was arduous and the 
struggle severe, it was not many years before Mr. Foster suc- 
ceeded in winning a high reputation as a lawyer. He had been a 
close student, not only when preparing for admission to the bar, 
but also in the early years after he was admitted, when he had 
leisure to familiarize himself with the principles of the common 
law, the statutes of our State, and the practice of the courts ; so 
that when he was subsequently called to the trial of important 
causes, he realized the fruits of this course of study, and was pre- 
pared to successfully contend with men who enjoyed the advan- 
tages of a larger experience and longer established reputations. 
Mr. Foster's exertions to take a high rank in his profession and 
obtain a lucrative practice were soon crowned with success. His 
retainers rapidly increased, his engagements multiplied, litigants 
that appreciated his great ability eagerly sought his services, and 
not only his rise at the bar of this county but at that of the State 
was marked and rapid. He was soon enrolled in the highest rank 
of counsellors and advocates. Even when in the full enjoyment of 
public honors, he clung to his profession. On his retirement from 
the Senate he returned to that pursuit to which he had devoted his 



early life, and of late years has been often engaged in the trial of 
important causes. In the argument of cases, Mr. Foster's manner 
was easy and impressive, his voice was clear and well modulated. 
He had a wonderful command of language, an adroitness in group- 
ing the telling facts developed by the testimony, and a forcible 
mode of presenting the same, that had a potent effect on the court 
or the jury. All through his long and brilliant professional career, 
he so conducted as to win the respect of his associates at the bar, 
and to lead the public to place unlimited confidence in his profes- 
sional honor and integrity, 

" The bench and bar of this State will profoundly feel the great 
loss that they have met with by the death of Mr. Foster. By his 
brethren in this county will it be the most deeply appreciated ; for 
they have ever found him in his daily walk a pleasant associate, in 
forensic struggles an honorable opponent, and, when connected 
with him in the transaction of business and relying upon his 
advice and assistance, an able, faithful, and efficient adviser and 
friend. In his own professional conduct he has ever presented a 
high standard of honor, integrity, and courtesy, and sought in every 
way to impart propriety and dignity to the practice of law. May 
we all ever hold in memory the noble qualities of the great man 
that has left us, and resolve to pattern after his admirable example ! 

" It was not as a lawyer of rare ability only that Mr. Foster at 
an early age became favorably known to the public and won 
merited distinction. While engaged in the study of the law he 
took a deep interest in public affairs, and immediately after en- 
tering his profession connected himself with the national Repub- 
lican, and subsequently with the Whig and present Republican, 
parties. He loved his profession, but at the same time he had a 
laudable ambition to take a prominent part in the exciting and 
arduous duties of public life. His political friends in Norwich felt, 
if he would consent to enter the General Assembly of the State, 
that they would have in him a faithful and efficient representative, 
and his party an able and reliable champion. He was many times 
elected a member of that body, — from 1839 to 1854, — and was 
three times chosen Speaker of the House. He entered that ser- 



io6 

vice in the freshness of his youth, and he was called from it to a 
higher and broader field of public duty in the maturity of his man- 
hood. He had remarkable gifts for a successful performance of 
the duties of the Speakership. He was quick, self-possessed, firm 
of purpose, had an iron control over his temper, and thoroughly 
understood those parliamentary rules that clothed him with author- 
ity and commanded the obedience of the House. Each time that 
he retired from the Speaker's chair, the members of the House, 
without distinction of party, bore ample testimony to the ability,, 
courtesy, and impartiality that he displayed as its presiding officer. 

"In 1855 Mr. Foster entered the Senate of the United States 
and remained a member of that body twelve years. He was 
elected its president pro tempore in 1865, and held the position 
until his retirement from the Senate in 1867. After the assassi- 
nation of Mr. Lincoln and the advancement of Mr. Johnson to the 
presidency, he became the acting Vice-President of the United 
States, and held that high office while he remained a member of 
the Senate. As the presiding officer of the Senate he maintained 
the same reputation for great ability that he had earned as Speaker 
of the Connecticut House of Representatives, and, by blandness 
of language, firmness of purpose, and personal dignity, commanded 
the respect and won the esteem of the members of that body. 

" While Mr. Foster was connected with the Senate, it numbered 
among its members some of the most illustrious statesmen that 
this Republic has ever produced. Fessenden of Maine, Foote and 
Collamer of Vermont, Anthony of Rhode Island, Seward of New 
York, Trumbull and Douglass of Illinois, Sumner and Wilson of 
Massachusetts, Sherman and Wade of Ohio, Grimes of Iowa, 
Breckenridge and Davis of Kentucky, Saulsbury of Delaware, 
McDougall of California, Hunter of Virginia, Benjamin of Louisi- 
ana, and Frelinghuysen of New Jersey, were among his intimate 
senatorial associates. 

"As a scholar, a lawyer, and a statesman, Mr. Foster ranked 
among the most distinguished members of the Senate ; and the 
record that he made, during the twelve years that he was a mem- 
ber of that body, is one of which the State that honored him by 



I07 

placing him there may well be proud. When he first took his seat 
in the Senate, the slavery question, which had long and violently 
agitated the country, had nearly reached its culmination. Mr. 
Foster united with his associate senators from the Northern States 
in resisting the arrogant demands of the slave power, and by voice 
and vote sustained the doctrine of human freedom, and the equal- 
ity of all men before the law. In the great struggle to save the 
life of the nation and to preserve our free institutions for posterity, 
from the day when the first Southern State attempted to secede 
from the Union till the final surrender of the rebel leaders at 
Appomattox, he took no hesitating nor uncertain part. All his 
declarations and acts, in the national council or at home, were such 
as loyalty inspired and love of country demanded. 

"In 1870 the town of Norwich again sent Mr. Foster to the 
Legislature of the State. He was once more chosen Speaker ; 
and, before the close of the session, he was elected a judge of the 
Supreme Court, a position which he filled until 1876, when, having 
reached seventy years of age, he was disqualified by a provision of 
the Constitution. As a member of the court, Mr. Foster so con- 
ducted as to win favorable opinions from lawyers and litigants. 
His courteous manner to counsel, the patient attention which he 
exhibited in the trial of causes, his dignified demeanor on the 
bench, and the strict impartiality and unbending integrity that gov- 
erned him in his decisions, led the people of the State to hold him 
in high estimation. His opinions, which he gave as a judge of the 
court of last resort, and are contained in the recently published 
volumes of our State reports, disclose extensive research, great 
legal acquirements, and a clear, active, and well-balanced intellect. 

" Other honors were at different times bestowed upon Mr. Fos- 
ter. He was twice elected mayor of the city of Norwich ; twice he 
was the candidate of his party for the office of governor of the 
State ; and in 1851 his Alma Mater conferred upon him the honor- 
ary degree of Doctor of Laws, a distinction eminently due to his 
well-known attainments as a scholar as well as a jurist. 

" The friends of Mr. Foster who knew him intimately can bear 
testimony to the versatility of his genius, his untiring industry in 



io8 

the pursuit of knowledge of every kind, and his familiarity with 
ancient and modern history and English and American literature. 
His mind was a storehouse of interesting and valuable informa- 
tion ; and his fertile imagination, great command of language, and 
easy utterance, made him a most interesting and instructive com- 
panion. 

" Mr. Foster was twice married, first to Joanna Boylston Lan- 
man, daughter of Hon, James Lanman, a judge of the Supreme 
Court of the State and United States senator, and the second time 
to Martha P. Lyman, daughter of Hon. Jonathan H. Lyman of 
Northampton, Mass., a prominent lawyer of his day in that State, 
who died young. His first wife died in 1859 ; his second survives 
him. Those of us who through his married life have seen him in 
his home, can truly say that he was beloved beyond expression in 
the family circle, and that his house was the abode of generous 
hospitality and of unalloyed domestic happiness. 

" Had I time, I would be glad to allude to other admirable traits 
in the character of the deceased which he exhibited through life, 
and which shone with increased lustre as that life drew near its 
close. But I feel that I have already too long occupied the atten- 
tion of the court. I will close my imperfect remarks by saying 
that my brothers of the bar unite with me in the desire to bear 
public testimony to the worth and virtues of the Hon. Lafayette 
S. Foster, and that the resolutions which have been presented to 
the court are the heartfelt expression of their regard and affection 
for the lamented dead." 

REMARKS BY JUDGE PARK. 

Judge Park took the resolutions, and said, — 

" The court heartily indorses the sentiments so beautifully and 
graphically expressed in the resolutions of the bar that have been 
presented regarding the death of the late Judge Foster of this 
county, and cordially concurs in all the remarks that have been 
made respecting the same. 

" It has been my good fortune to know Judge Foster quite inti- 
mately for many years, and it can be truly said that he was worthy 



I09 

of the eulogies that have been bestowed upon his talents and vir- 
tues. He possessed great abilities, both natural and acquired, and 
had in a remarkable degree all those sterling qualities that go to 
make up an estimable character. To his great learning, legal, 
scientific, and literary, he added those accomplishments of mind 
and manner that fitted him to shine in private life, as well as at the 
bar, on the rostrum, and in the halls of Congress. In his death, he 
has bequeathed to all the living a notable, pure, and Christian 
example, commanding universal respect, admiration, and emulation. 
And in his demise, also, we are all again admonished that ' in the 
midst of life we are in death.' A few days ago Judge Foster trav- 
ersed our streets in all the vigor of his early manhood, both men- 
tal and physical ; now all that remains of this great and good man 
is the remembrance of his abilities and virtues. Truly is it said 
that ' death is no respecter of persons.' He strikes alike in cabin, 
cottage, mansion, and palace. No age, constitution, or position in 
society is exempt from his ravages. He comes to the high and the 
low, the rich and the poor, without discrimination. He has visited 
the court very often in the last few years. Not a judge remains, 
of either court, except myself, who was there when I had the honor 
to become a member ; and nearly all have been removed by death. 

" Let us all be admonished in time, for the grim monster may 
appear at our door in a day and an hour that we look not for his 
coming. 

" Mr. Clerk, let the resolutions be entered at length on the 
records of the court." 



V. 

MR. FOSTER AS A LAWYER IN 1852. 

[From " Sketches of Eminent Americans."] 

As a lawyer, Mr. Foster stands in the front rank of his profes- 
sion in his native State. He is now in the prime of life, in the 
full vigor and strength of his mental powers, and in the enjoyment 



no 

of unimpaired health. Mr. Foster, in the commencement of his 
legal studies, made a thorough elementary preparation ; and, hav- 
ing a retentive and disciplined memory, combined with a brilliant 
quickness or readiness of manner, he is enabled to make instantly 
available all his learning and experience. It was in a great meas- 
ure owing to these circumstances that he was enabled so soon to 
attain a commanding position in the profession. He excels, both 
as an advocate and as a counsellor ; and it is that happy union and 
blending of all the qualities necessary to a good practitioner, that 
has made him so successful in his profession. 

His style of speaking is classic and severe, distinguished by 
power of argument, appositeness of illustration, and close, logical 
demonstration. One of its most striking features consists in the 
entire sincerity with which he argues his cause, leaving no doubt 
on the minds of his auditory as to his own belief of the truth of 
what he is saying. His elocution is good, although the intonation 
of his voice is somewhat sharp. 

Having a fine command of the purest English, and a knowledge 
of its weight and value seldom attained, he is enabled to make his 
argumentative efforts the more effective from the precision and 
perspicuity with which they are rendered. This makes him pow- 
erful in arguing intricate points of law before a court. When 
addressing a jury, he manages to fix the attention of the jurors at 
the outset, before going into the merits of the case, and steadily 
retains it unbroken to the end. His manner is perfectly self- 
possessed, his language is in the purest taste, and his arguments 
are embellished with those graces of oratory which indicate the 
finished scholar and accomplished lawyer. He is thus enabled, in 
a double manner, to influence a jury, both by the power of argu- 
ment and the swaying force of eloquence. In the examination 
and cross-examination of witnesses, by reason of his strong powers 
of investigation, he is peculiarly effective, and displays a rare 
knowledge of human nature. The fast witness he checks, the 
timid witness he encourages, the reluctant witness he draws out, 
and the lying witness he so tangles in the mazes of his own false- 
hoods that he strengthens the very cause he undertook to injure. 



Ill 



He must needs be a skilful and well-disciplined liar who can come 
unscathed and unexposed from one of Mr. Foster's cross-examma- 

tions. 1 • 1. T f 

Mr Foster's highest ambition has been to excel m the Ime ot 
his profession, to attain a thorough understanding and mastery of 
legal science ; and to this end, with a singleness of purpose, he 
ha^s directed the untiring industry and energies of a lifetime. 

Shrewd and keen, ever on the look-out to detect the weak pomts 
of an adversary's position if open to ridicule, his ready exposure 
of the weakness frequently gives a force and influence favorable 
to his cause beyond the power of the severest logic or closest 
reasoning. He possesses the highest powers of wit, together with 
a keen sense of the ridiculous ; and his retorts, on occasions suita- 
ble for displaying those powers, are unanswerable. Another marked 
feature in the professional career of Mr. Foster is his faithfulness 
and untiring devotion to the interests of his clients. No matter 
how trifling the amount or how uncertain the prospect of remun- 
eration for his services, he works just as hard and with the same 
zeal as though the case involved large interests and abundant 
reward. His practice is very large, extending regularly through 
all the eastern counties in Connecticut, and to a considerable extent 
in other portions of the State. * .* * 

Mr Foster commenced life with only that inheritance and 
resource, so often the sole dependence of a New England boy. 
viz , himself. By a life of strict integrity, laborious study, ener- 
getic action, and devotion to the duties and business of the pro- 
fession he assumed, he has raised himself to rank among the 
foremost in his native State. Beloved with a fervent warmth of 
attachment by all who know him personally, and respected by all 
men of all parties, he stands now, just in the prime of life, at the 
head of his profession in the eastern part of the State, and the 
acknowledged leader of his party. In the coming future there are 
no honors to which he may not aspire, and no place which he 
would not fill with dignity and honor to himself and credit to his 
state and country. 



I 12 



VI. 

NEW LONDON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

From the secretary's annual report of this society, in Novem- 
ber, 1880, the following is quoted : — 

" For the first time since the organization of this society, at its 
annual meeting, it has become the sad duty to record in my report 
a breach so wide as has been made by the loss of one of its most 
beloved and highly esteemed officers, — our late honored and 
lamented president. Hon. Lafayette S. Foster, with the late Hon. 
Henry P. Haven, were among the first to give life to the society. 
He was one of its most active and efficient friends and counsellors. 
For nine successive years he had served and honored the society 
as its president, and always with rare ability and fidelity. At 
every annual meeting of the society he has been present, presiding 
with a grace and dignity peculiar to himself, always with words of 
wise counsel and encouragement. To-day we miss his face, and no 
longer hear his kind words of sympathy and encouragement. We 
shall know him no more in this life. His place will be filled by 
another, but his memory will long be fondly cherished by surviving 
members. May his falling mantle rest on his successor." 

New London, Conn., Wednesday, Sept. 22, 1880. 

The adjourned meeting of the New London County Historical 
Society, held this morning, was presided over by Mr. Daniel Lee. 
The committee appointed to prepare a notice of the late president 
of the society, Judge Foster, presented, through the Hon. Benja- 
min Stark, the chairman, the following memorial record : — 

" Lafayette Sabin Foster closed a long and useful life at his 
home in Norwich on Sunday morning at four o'clock. He was 
seventy-three years of age. A native of New London County, he 
took a deep and lively interest in all the objects of our historical 
society, and was its first president. A graduate of Brown Uni- 



113 

versity, he received its highest honor, the degree of doctor of laws. 
A member of the Legislature of his native State, he was Speaker of 
the House for three years. A member of the bar of this county, 
he became a professor of laws in Yale College, and a judge of the 
Supreme Court of the State. A senator in Congress twelve years, 
he was president of the Senate and acting Vice-President of the 
United States for three years. He was successful, and deserved 
success. In every public station to which he was called, he 
advanced to its highest position. Such distinguished men are 
to be remembered for their exemplary aspirations, for their honor- 
able usefulness, and for their fidelity in the discharge of duty. 
They live in the affection and respect of the people after they have 
passed away. 

" It is eminently proper that the New London County Historical 
Society should spread upon its minutes a sincere expression of sor- 
row at the loss it sustains by the demise of its president, and pro- 
found acknowledgment of his ardent and uniform devotion to the 
work of historical research, investigation, and record, for which 
the society is established. 

"BENJAMIN STARK, 
J. P. C. MATHER, 
J. GEORGE HARRIS, 
F. N. BRAMAN, 

Committee.. 



At the annual meeting of the New London County Historical 
Society, Feb. 22, 1881, the president, Hon. David A. Wells, elected 
to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Mr. Foster, thus 
referred i u lii^ -^ || ^ mll^] ^'I'l'^'^ to his predecessor in office : — 

"Although this. society, at a previous and specially called meet- 
ing, has officially and appropriately noticed the death of our late 
president, the Hon. Lafayette S. Foster, I am not willing that this 
our first annual meeting since his decease, should pass without 
some further reference to this sad event, and without improving the 



114 

opportunity to ask your attention to the character of the man 
whom we have known so famiharly, and with whom we have so 
long been so pleasantly associated. 

" There are some lives, which, from their gentleness and even 
tenor, seem to require to have the seal of death affixed to them in 
order to fully reveal their characteristics, and enable the world to 
clearly estimate the extent and sphere of their influence. Such 
was especially true of our late friend and associate, whose loss we 
lament, and whose memory we would honor. He was a man whose 
distinguishing characteristic, more marked, it seems to me, than in 
any other person I have ever known, was a profound and abiding 
sense of the obligation of duty incumbent upon him, in common with 
all others, to the state of which he was a citizen, and to the society 
of which he was a member ; and as he held this sphere of duty and 
responsibility to be commensurate with the ability of every indi- 
vidual to be good and to do good, and as in his particular case the 
measure of ability was large, the task which he accordingly imposed 
upon himself was of necessity of no little magnitude, and came to 
be an essential element of his every-day life and character. As a 
consequence of this, he was a man who was always ready, and 
never waited to be urged, to lend his aid and heartily co-operate 
with whatever of plan or action promised to benefit either state or 
society. And yet so modest and unobtrusive was he in all his 
actions, so devoid was he of every thing in the nature of self- 
ostentation, so noiselessly did he come and go amongst us, doing 
faithfully the many things which his hands found to do, that soci- 
ety in a measure failed, while he lived, to recognize as it should 
the daily beauty of his life, or the excellence of the example which, 
in every position to which he was called, he continually exhibited to 
those about him. His life indeed resembled one of those powerful 
and well-adjusted pieces of mechanism, which perform their work 
so quietly, and yet so effectively, that it is not easy to realize the 
force that they transmit, or that they have any intimate connection 
with the striking results of the more showy and noisy machinery 
by which they are surrounded. But now that he has gone, and now 
that we seek to find others who shall fitly stand in his place and 



"5 

assume his trusts, we recognize, by the difficulty of finding them, 
how exceptional were his qualities, how beneficial was his influ- 
ence, and how great a loss society has sustained in his death, at a 
ripe and full, but nevertheless at an untimely age, because ' his eye 
was not dim nor his natural force abated.' 

" To Mr. Foster this society owes a large debt of gratitude. He 
needed no solicitation to take an active part in its inception and 
management, because he saw that the work which the society pro- 
posed to itself to do was useful, that it would contribute to keep 
alive the memories of our fathers, and strengthen their sons, 
through those memories, in those kindly relations which especially 
spring from a feeling of a common ancestry and heritage ; and 
although at our annual gatherings few might be present, his place 
was never vacant. 

" With temperaments and organizations so various that no two 
of the individuals that make up the generations of men are said to 
be in all respects alike, the judgments which we personally form 
respecting our fellow men must necessarily be different and often 
conflicting ; but I feel confident that you will agree with me that 
the attributes which I have ascribed to Mr. Foster were those 
which especially characterized him, and that he was, by reason of 
them, in all respects a model citizen. And if to this designation 
I were to add any thing more of deserved and not fulsome praise, I 
should say that he was pre-eminently a pure man ; one who had 
girt himself about with such a sense of personal honor and self- 
respect, that meanness and selfishness shrunk abashed and retreat- 
ed in his presence ; a man who had such self-control, that, if under 
a sense of personal wrong the harsh word perchance rose to his 
lips, it was rarely or never uttered ; and who, without malice to any, 
had an unbounded charity for all. And if the New London County 
Historical Society do no more than enshrine and perpetuate the 
memory of its first president, Lafayette S. Foster, its mission cer- 
tainly will not have been in vain." 



ii6 

VII. 

NORWICH FREE ACADEMY. 

At a meeting of the Trustees of the Norwich Free Academy, 
held Sept. 20, 1880, the Board passed the following resolutions, and 
adjourned : — 

" Whereas, by the Providence of Almighty God, Hon. L. F. S. Foster, 
one of this Board of Trustees, has been removed by death. 

" Therefore, Resolved, That in the death of Hon. L. F. S. Foster we have 
lost one of the original corporators of this institution. Elected a trustee in 
September, 1859, he has always manifested a strong interest in the cause of 
education in this city, and by his advice and contributions made his influ- 
ence felt. 

" To his family we offer our sympathy, and will, as a Board of Trustees, 
attend his funeral, and publish this resolution in 'The Morning Bulletin.' " 



VIII. 

HON. LAFAYETTE S. FOSTER, LL.D. 

[From the " Bible Society Record," November, 1880.] 

The Board of Managers having received the announcement of 
the decease of the Hon. Lafayette S. Foster, LL.D., recently a 
vice-president of the American Bible Society, place upon their 
Minutes this tribute to his memory : — 

" Mr. Foster died at his home in Norwich, Conn., after a brief 
illness, on Sunday, Sept. 19th, 1880, in the seventy-fourth year of his 
age. A native of New London County, he graduated with the 
highest honors of his class at Brown University, in 1828, and after 
a course of legal study was admitted to the bar in Norwich, in 1831. 
His public career from that time onward is one to which his friends 
point with peculiar satisfaction. For ten successive years he was 



117 

sent to the State Legislature, and was repeatedly chosen Speaker 
of the lower House. For two full terms he was a member of the 
United States Senate ; and during part of that time, after the death 
of Mr. Lincoln, he was acting Vice-President of the United States. 
In 1868 he was chosen Professor of Law in Yale College; and in 
1870 he was elected judge of the Supreme Court of Connecticut, 
serving in that capacity until he reached the ''age of threescore 
years and ten. 

" While Mr. Foster filled these various positions in public life 
with conspicuous ability, he was also most highly esteemed in 
private life and in the Christian church. His official relation to 
this Board began with his election as vice-president in 1878 ; but, 
for years before, he had been a life member of the society, and had 
interested himself in its work. 

" The Board of Managers deeply regret the loss which they have 
sustained in the decease of this honored and eminent associate, 
whose sympathy and counsels they had hoped to share for years to 
come." 



IX. 

CONNECTICUT PRISON ASSOCIATION. 

In the annual report of the Connecticut Prison Association, 
submitted to the Legislature of 1880-81, the Hon. Francis Way- 
land, chairman of the executive committee of the association, pays 
the following tribute to the services of the late Hon. Lafayette S. 
Foster to the cause of prison reform : — 

" Since our last report, the Association has suffered a serious loss 
in the death of Hon. Lafayette S. Foster, long one of its vice- 
presidents and a member of its executive committee. Although 
the numerous engagements of Mr. Foster prevented his regular 
attendance at our quarterly meetings, he never failed to give us the 
benefit of his counsels and the support of his encouraging words. 
Those who knew Judge Foster will not be surprised to learn that 



ii8 

the condition of the discharged prisoner, homeless and friendless, 
but sincerely desiring to earn an honest livelihood, strongly- 
appealed to his warm heart and his well-informed philanthropy. 
His views of the duty which society and the state owe to this most 
unfortunate class were clearly defined, and always on the side of 
enlightened humanity. Too wise to waste his sympathy in senti- 
mental regrets, he labored with his fellow officers of the Prison 
Association to devise the best means to help the prisoner by teach- 
ing him to help himself. As might have been expected from the 
character of the man, his suggestions, founded on long experience 
at the bar and on the bench, were thoroughly practical and con- 
servative. What he had seen of the causes of crime, the tempta- 
tions by which weak or ignorant men are assailed, of the criminal 
instinct which is inherited, and of the evil companionship which is 
demoralizing, had taught him that, while violations of law must be 
punished for the protection of society, no pains should be spared 
to make such punishment tend towards the reformation of the 
offender. He deprecated undue severity in prison regulations, and 
considered it of prime importance that all the influences surround- 
ing the convict should be of such a nature as to insure the best pos- 
sible preparation for a reformed life. Believing that the moment of 
the prisoner's discharge is a crisis in his career, and that judicious 
efforts made in his behalf at this time, may, in many cases, reclaim 
him from the ranks of crime, he was among the first to approve 
the formation of this Association, and became at once one of its 
most useful officers. His memory will be held in the highest 
esteem by those to whom he gave such cordial and intelligent 
support, and who ever found him an efficient ally in the cause of 
prison reform." 



119 



X. 



EXTRACT FROM THE ANNUAL REPORT OF PRESIDENT 

PORTER TO THE FELLOWS OF YALE COLLEGE, 

OCTOBER, 1880. 

The Hon. Lafayette S. Foster, recently deceased, has made pro. 
vision in his will for a legacy of sixty thousand dollars, to be paid 
at some future day for the endowment of a Professorship of Com- 
mon Law. This very generous gift is valuable not alone for the 
direct benefit which it will bring to the school. It is also the fulfil- 
ment of a long-cherished hope that some member of the legal 
profession would provide in this way for the specific object of 
instruction in its principles and its practice, by securing to the 
teacher that comparative exemption from many of the duties and 
cares that are incident to active and laborious practice which seems 
to be essential to the highest success. The principle has long 
been recognized among liberal minds, that every man is in many 
senses "a debtor to his profession." The obligations which are so 
generally acknowledged are various. It is not often possible that 
a single individual should at the same time be able and disposed to 
discharge them by founding a professorship for legal instruction. 
The memory of our late eminent judge, senator, practitioner, and 
teacher will long be honored in this institution for this liberal and 
sagacious benefaction. 



XI. 

We forbear annexing other obituary notices which appeared 
in the various public journals ; but the following extracts, from a 
few of the many private letters received after Mr. Foster's death, 
attest the love and confidence that his life inspired, and the wide 
sense of bereavement which his death occasioned. 



I20 

From Dr. James C. Welling. 

Washington, Sept. 21, 1880. 

* * * " I feel that I must reach out my hand to you in simple 
token of the share I would take in this affliction which has not 
only come to darken your home and desolate your heart, but also 
has come to carry grief into a thousand homes and hearts within 
which the name of your husband was cherished with esteem and 
with affection. 

" Having been honored with his friendship in other days, I can 
bear my humble testimony to the high intellectual qualities, the 
sterling goodness, and the lovely social graces which endeared 
him to all with whom he was brought into intimate relations ; 
and from the sadness which fills my heart, now that I shall see 
him no more, I can readily measure the sense of loss which must 
oppress the bosom of those who loved him most because they 
knew him best. 

" In a moment like this, I may not venture to mock your sorrow 
with words of consolation ; only there is consolation in the review 
of a life which was noble and pure in all its impulses, and to 
which the hand of death has now set the seal of a sacred con- 



secration. 



>> * * 



From Hon. E. W. Stoughton. 

New York, Sept. 23, 1880. 
* * * " I well know how utterly unavailing is the effort of friends 
to diminish anguish like yours by any attempt at consolation. I 
know, however, that to one so bereaved, comfort may be found 
in the consciousness that the husband you mourn was honored as 
statesman and patriot by millions of his countrymen, and beloved 
by many, very many friends, among whom I count myself not the 
least. His qualities of mind and heart, his great abilities never 
misapplied, his high cultivation and thorough breeding, always har- 
monizing with the simplicity of noblest manhood, made him the 



121 

favorite of all who knew him, and a standard for men to imitate. 
To have lived as he did, in the most tragic period of our national 
life, to have been a marked and noble actor in that tragedy, to 
have passed through it honored by all, even by those he opposed 
as the enemies of his country, was a career which will glorify the 
grave where he is to rest, and must cause even your sad heart to 
beat with sacred pride and solemn joy at the thought that its love 
was to him dearer than all his earthly honors." * * * 



From Professor Simeon E. Baldwin. 

New Haven, October, 1880. 

* * * "An acquaintance which began at my father's house in 
my childhood had ripened into a real friendship. Few men of his 
age have kept so freshly the warm feelings of youth, or been so 
fully in sympathy with the changes of modern thought, and what- 
ever belongs to genuine reform. He has been as active and suc- 
cessful in the public service since leaving the bench as he was before, 
and the history of his life shows no break up to the end." 



* * * 



From Hon. Robert C. Winthrop. 

Brookline, Mass., Sept. 20, 1880. 
* * * " Among the men whom I have known in public and in 
private life, there was no one left for whom I had a higher 
regard or a warmer respect than for your lamented husband. The 
announcement of his death gave me real grief. I had anticipated 
for him many more years of useful and honorable life, and had 
hoped, that, in the retirement which age had brought to us both, I 
might more frequently enjoy the privilege of his society. God has 
ordered it otherwise ; and it is only for us who remain to cherish 
the memory of his excellence." 



* * * 



122 

From Mr. J. L. Penniman. 

Philadelphia, December, 1880. 
* * * " Every one must testify to Mr. Foster's earnestness and 
purity of purpose, to his generosity and benevolence of life, to the 
warm and affectionate attachments of his heart, to his love for 
and devotion to all the truths of our holy Christian religion, to his 
marked intellectuality, all of which were fully and freely dedicated 
to his God, his country, and his friends." * * * 



From Gen. George W. Cullum. 

New York, Sept. 23, 1880. 
* * * "As a statesman and jurist, it is unnecessary that I 
should speak of your husband, for the whole country has already 
resounded with appreciative eulogies and just praises ; but, as my 
personal friend, I grieve for his loss almost as for a brother, for I 
had known him more than a quarter of a century, and with each 
revolving year I more and more appreciated his purity of heart, 
his manly virtues, his nobility of nature, his steadfast loyalty to 
country and friends, and all his sweet, refined, and graceful ameni- 
ties which captivated the affections of all his social circle. Little 
did I think, when I last sat at his side at Mr. Stoughton's dinner, 
that his genial spirit, his sparkling wit, his exuberant humor, his 
wealth of culture, and all his polished courtesies, marking the true 
gentleman, I should enjoy no more forever. A great man and a 
brave spirit has gone ; and I feel a wide gap left in my heart, for I 
truly loved him." * * * 



From President Gilman. 

Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, 
Sept. 25, 1880. 

* * * " I hope you will not deem it intrusive if I give expression 
in this way to the affection and respect I have long felt for your 



123 

honored husband, who met us so cordially a few weeks ago within 
your doors, and promised, if possible, to come and see us again 
next winter. From my earliest recollection he has been a 
representative man, not only in Norwich, but in Connecticut, and 
before the entire nation ; and throughout a long, unsullied political 
career he has been an example of enlightened, independent, and 
patriotic statesmanship. There are few public men who have 
gone through the changes of the last twenty or thirty years with a 
record so worthy as his to be honorably and gratefully remembered. 
Although my personal intercourse with him has been occasional 
rather than constant, it has, perhaps for this very reason, left a 
very strong impression on my memory ; and I feel that I have 
lost a friend whom it was always a pleasure to meet, and whose 
public and private virtues it will always be a pleasure to recall and 
honor." * * * 



From Rev. Henry A. Miles. 

HiNGHAM, Mass., Sept. 29, 1880. 
* * * " My recollection of your husband runs back long prior to 
your first knowledge of him. In college he was known for traits 
of character which have distinguished him through life, — a cour- 
tesy of manners which everywhere won friends, a force of will 
which was not turned aside by obstacles, a power of concentration 
never satisfied till it had penetrated to the bottom of a subject, and 
a sportive, joyous nature which poured sunlight around his path. 
Not often are the words more true that * the boy is father of the 
man.' " 



From Gen. J. Watts De Peyster. 

New York, September, 1880. 

* * * " Mr. Foster's loss is a national one. I was shocked at the 
sad news. I esteemed him as much as any gentleman with whom 
I was acquainted. He was beloved and respected by every one who 



124 

knew him. He was a universal favorite. It is marvellous how 
he endeared and impressed himself on every person of ability and 
standing with whom he came in contact. I have heard gentlemen 
who rarely give way to enthusiasm warm up to it in remembering 
the exquisite courtesy and integrity of "your husband. * * * From 
Mr. Foster's appearance and activity I thought I should long enjoy 
his friendship in this world." * * * 



From Hon. Augustus Brandegee. 

New London, July 15, 1881. 

* * * " It was my great privilege to have known Senator Foster 
since the session of the Connecticut House of Representatives in 
1854, of which he was Speaker, and from which he was, during 
the session, transferred to the Senate of the United States. I 
was associated with him in public life during the momentous issues 
of both war and peace which have made the Thirty-Eighth and 
Thirty-Ninth Congresses historic. 

" Upon his return to the practice of the profession of which he 
was a most conspicuous ornament, I was frequently associated with 
or against him in the friendly contentions of the bar; and of recent 
years, in the management of a common trust, I had a rare oppor- 
tunity of frequent and friendly intercourse. 

"With these opportunities for observation and acquaintance, I 
can safely say, I never knew a man more honorable, more just, more 
pure and upright. As a senator he was among the foremost when 
there were giants in that chamber. He was a trusted counsellor 
of Lincoln, and respected and beloved by his associates. As a 
judge he was conscientious, dignified, learned, and impartial. As 
a lawyer he was unsurpassed. He had every qualification which 
was needed to maintain a position in the front rank, whether as an 
advocate before the jury or the judges. In learning, eloquence, 
pathos, wit, argument, sarcasm, and tact, — all brought to contribute 
towards the highest success in the noblest of professions, — he was 
facile princeps. 



125 

" It was not till the later years, when admitted to a closer ac- 
quaintance and more friendly intercourse, that I came to know 
and appreciate the sweeter and more lovable traits of his character 
which the grave and dignified manner of his bearing at first some- 
what concealed. He was as full of tenderness and sympathy as a 
woman. He was replete with humor and anecdote, — genial, cheer- 
ful, and scrupulously careful of not only the rights but the feelings 
and even the sensitiveness of others. 

"As his sun began to descend toward the west, it lost none of 
its meridian glory ; but it took on a mellower and softer radiance, 
and cast its level and genial beams on all that surrounded it. He 
was not only a great, but he was a good, man. And when he died 
without the first cloud upon his faculties, or the first stain upon his 
fame, he was to my mind, whether for the spotlessness of his char- 
acter, the abilities he possessed, or the honors he had enjoyed, — The 
first Citizen of Connecticut." * * * 



From Professor Edwards A. Park. 



Andover, Mass., Sept. 28, 1880. 
* * * " I cannot tell you how much I was appalled by hearing of 
the afifliction which has come upon you. * * * I became acquainted 
with Mr. Foster fifty-six years ago. We were college mates, but 
not classmates. He was distinguished for his ready and retentive 
memory, — it was wonderful; and for his sprightly wit, — that also 
was remarkable. He held a high rank as a scholar. No one of 
his fellow students surpassed him. In all respects his character 
was above reproach. I anticipated his future eminence. In 1839 
I met him in Washington, and was delighted to notice his moral as 
well as intellectual progress. I called with him on President Van 
Buren. He seemed to be at home in the society of the President 
and his cabinet. He appeared to be evidently designed for a high 
position in the Congress of the United States, and for performing 
a good and great service there. When a student in college I antici- 
pated for him a distinguished career as a statesman. After he had 



126 

finished that career I met him occasionally at our Alma Mater, and 
was charmed with his cordial manners and exuberance of social 
feeling, — in fact with all the characteristics which I admired in 
him while we were fellow students. He was always ready to intro- 
duce religious topics into his familiar converse with me. His mind 
was apt to dwell on things unseen and eternal. I saw convincing 
proof that he had retained his fealty to his conscience throughout 
his public career. I had esteemed him as a great man; and the 
more intimately I knew him, more and more did I esteem him as a 
good man. He did not obtrude his religious principles upon the 
public, but he cherished them in the sanctuary of his own soul. 
* * * I cannot easily bring myself to believe that I shall never see 
him again, for when I last met him he appeared to be a picture of 
health and vitality," * * * 



XII. 

CONCERNING THE DIGNITY OF A RETIRED PUBLIC 

OFFICER.^ 

[From "The New York Independent."] 

On the foregoing subject, which has occupied the ingenious 
solicitude of so many eminent contributors to " The Independent," 
it would not be becoming in me to venture with mere expressions 
of my own opinion. But, having been personal witness of a very 
eminent example exactly bearing on the question under consider- 
ation, I am bold to believe that a statement of it may be as well 
worth pondering as the arguments and opinions even of the most 
illustrious of your correspondents. 

The church which it is my privilege to serve in the Gospel has 
been most sorely bereaved, within a few months, by the death of 
beloved and venerated members, and notably by the death of La- 

' Written on some one's proposal, seriously discussed, to endow retired Presidents and Vice- 
Presidents of the United States with large pensions, and with life membership in the Senate. 



12/ 

fayette S. Foster, who for the twelve most momentous years of 
American history was a Senator of the United States, and for a 
part of that time was President of the Senate, and, after the death 
of President Lincoln and the accession of Mr. Johnson to the 
Presidency, succeeded to the chair of Vice-President. Until the 
expiration of his senatorial term he fulfilled the duties of this high 
position with a dignity, a fine courtesy, and a commanding ability 
which I have often heard spoken of by public men, but never 
spoken of except with admiration. The greatness of his public 
services during those memorable years is not at all to be measured 
by his official station or his public acts. Few men were more 
resorted to for private personal counsel by Abraham Lincoln — as, 
one after another, or many at a time, the awful questions of the 
war emerged — than the upright, clear-headed, learned senator from 
Connecticut ; and in the hardly less stormy days of reconstruction, 
when great measures were pending, there was no place where men 
whose single anxiety was to do the best thing for the whole coun- 
try were more apt to find each other in private conference than at 
Senator Foster's apartment. His was a senatorial career to v hich 
Connecticut citizens look back with a sense of honorable pride. 

From the second position in the Republic Mr. Foster returned, 
in the ripe strength of his manhood, to his home in Norwich and to 
the absolute level of private citizenship. No doubt that which is 
alleged concerning the retiring presidents was true in this case, — 
that his private business had suffered by his twelve years' devotion 
to public affairs. Certainly this was true, that the compensations 
with which some public men manage to balance this drawback were 
wholly absent in his case. There had been no salary grab in his 
time ; and, if there had been a whiskey ring, that made some sena- 
tors rich without visible disgrace, he was not in it. He came back 
to his fellow citizens, as he went from among them, with "clean 
hands and a pure heart," and resumed practice as a lawyer. Some- 
thing had been lost, no doubt, by the long disuse of his profession, 
— something of facility in practice, something of the " run of busi- 
ness." But more had been gained in solidity of mind, in breadth 
of character, in a reputation wide as the continent; so that if there 



128 

would have been difficulty in his taking at once just the same place 
he had left, there was no difficulty at all in his taking a place higher 
and more honorable, — I do not say and would not care to say more 
lucrative. 

Those that best knew Mr. Foster and the needs of the public 
service, grudged that his large and unselfish wisdom, ripened by an 
experience so long and exceptional, should be lost to the national 
councils; but it did not occur to them — certainly it did not to him 
— that there was need of any other way of getting a desirable man 
into the Senate besides that of electing him to it. He thought it 
no dishonor, either to himself or to the station he had filled, to 
serve as a member of the lower house of the Connecticut Legisla- 
ture, and to accept the Speaker's chair of that unim posing body. 
For a few years, until retired by law at the age of seventy, he was 
judge of the Supreme Court of Connecticut, but returned at once 
from the bench to the bar, of which he was the ornament and 
pride. 

It was in these later years only that I have known him well. 
That courtly but most genial gentleman, the recollections of whose 
life were a thrilling chapter of unwritten history, the wit and wis- 
dom of whose table talk gave added charms to his generous hospi- 
tality, was, in point of civil station, only a dihgent and honorable 
attorney at law. One other office he held. He was teacher of a 
Bible class in the Sunday school of the Park Church. This will, 
doubtless, seem undignified to some of your correspondents ; but 
there are few figures in my memory that I recall with more of rev- 
erence than that vigorous form, scarcely beginning to droop under 
the burden of years, and that " good gray head that all men knew," 
standing before his class in animated discourse on a chapter of the 
word of God, or in words of singular grace and reverent beauty 
leading the prayers of our Thursday evening meeting. 

I have been in the habit, these two years that I have been 
neighbor to Mr. Foster, of looking upon his diligent, fruitful, and 
honorable old age as presenting the very type and ideal of a worthy 
close to the career of a great statesman and public official in a Re- 
public such as ours. I have been glad that such an example should 



129 

be before the eyes of my sons ; and, when visitors from the Old 
World have come to see me, I have taken pride in pointing to the 
late acting Vice-President of the United States, taking his modest 
place and work on an equality with all the rest of us, as a noble 
and characteristic example of what is best in American republi- 
canism. 

LEONARD WOOLSEY BACON. 
Norwich, Conn., Nov. 29, 1880. 



